Trump-Putin summit anxiety; cyberwar without a rulebook; combating disinformation, and more

tranquil Europe, a strong EU would be even more valuable if the U.S. security role in Europe were to decline.
For this reason, Trump’s simultaneous opposition to the EU and skepticism about NATO is both short-sighted and contradictory…. [U]nraveling the EU would accelerate the renationalization of European foreign policy and reignite security competition there, which would in turn force the United States to pay more attention to Europe than if Europe remained loosely unified and therefore mostly tranquil.
This brings us to the upcoming meeting with Putin. Unlike those who see the Russian president as the prince of darkness or Trump’s puppet master, I think 1) the West deserves an equal share of the blame for the deteriorating relationship, 2) it would be good if relations could be repaired, and 3) in the abstract, it makes good sense for Trump to talk directly to him to see if No. 2 can be achieved. If Trump were smart, however, and interested in a striking a good deal with Putin, he would want to show up in Helsinki later this month with a successful NATO summit and a united alliance behind him. This situation would give him maximum leverage and force Putin to match any U.S. offers with concessions of his own. By contrast, if Trump showed up with NATO in disarray, Putin would have already achieved a core strategic goal and would have little reason to do Trump any favors.
But as Mark Landler of the New York Times recently noted, Trump’s pattern of behavior thus far is the exact opposite. Instead of aggressively bargaining with foreign leaders, he simply offers autocrats unilateral concessions and get nothing but a photo-op in return. As befits an uncontrollable narcissist and former reality TV show host, Trump cares more about getting a big audience than getting good deals. He knows the world will be watching him in Helsinki — just as it was watching when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore — and he probably also knows that you get bigger ratings by meeting with ruthless but colorful dictators than with the polite, well-meaning, democratically elected, and often boring presidents or prime ministers of America’s longtime allies. The national interest is irrelevant; it’s the Nielsen ratings that count.
By Trump’s standards, in short, his meeting with Putin will be successful simply by occurring, even if the famously