The Russia watchTrump-Putin summit anxiety; cyberwar without a rulebook; combating disinformation, and more

Published 11 July 2018

 

•  The EU and NATO and Trump — Oh My!

•  Greece to expel, ban Russian diplomats

•  What Trump’s Supreme Court pick means for the Russia probe

•  Waging cyber war without a rulebook

•  Information operations are a cybersecurity problem: Toward a new strategic paradigm to combat disinformation

•  GOP senators tell contradictory stories about Moscow trip

•  Giuliani works for foreign clients while serving as Trump’s attorney

•  Former Putin adviser has secret investment in US energy firm praised by Trump

 

The EU and NATO and Trump — Oh My! (Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy)
It is no secret that U.S. President Donald Trump has an instinctive animus against the European Union and NATO. He supported the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, reportedly advised French President Emmanuel Macron that his country should leave the union too, and [two weeks ago] falsely claimed that the EU was created “to take advantage of the United States.” (This last statement raises an obvious question: Does Trump know any history at all? The answer appears to be no.) He has long complained that NATO’s European members aren’t paying enough for defense and has offered only tepid support for the mutual defense clause that is at the heart of the NATO treaty.
So, it’s not surprising that both Europeans and Americans are now [watching] the NATO summit [taking place this week] with a certain foreboding. Coming on the heels of Trump’s petulant tantrums during and after the G-7 summit in June, and taking place just before he is scheduled to meet one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the summit could turn out to be the diplomatic equivalent of a 29-car pileup.
Unfortunately, Trump’s evident distaste for these institutions mostly reveals his own ignorance and lack of strategic acumen. Why? Because there is a connection between U.S. interests, its commitment to NATO, and the strength of the EU…. [T]he United States still has a continuing interest in peace in Europe, partly for economic reasons, but mostly so that Americans don’t have to spend much time worrying about that region and can focus on areas — most notably Asia — where the balance of power is more delicate and a potential regional hegemon, China, is apparent. For this reason, the U.S. role in Europe should be reduced gradually and in a cooperative spirit, so that NATO’s European members have time to adjust. Trump’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach to diplomacy is exactly the wrong way to proceed.
And that’s where the EU comes in. The European Union and its predecessors were not created to rip the United States off, as Trump claims, but rather to help Western Europe generate the economic strength needed to stand up to the Soviet Union and to make war between Europe’s separate states unlikely-to-unthinkable. Given that the United States still has an interest in a