A Knapsack’s Worth of Courage
Now, and for some years to come, we will need a lot less Paul Weiss, and a lot more Benjamin Warner.
Eliot A. Cohen
Eliot Cohen is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall, and co-host of the Shield of the Republic podcast. Cohen is also the author of Supreme Command, Conquered Into Liberty, The Big Stick, and other works on military history and national-security policy. He created the strategic-studies program at Johns Hopkins SAIS and served as the school’s ninth dean. He has also served as the counselor of the Department of State and in other positions in the U.S. Department of Defense and the intelligence community.
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Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Sources: Sepia Times / Getty; Fort Ticonderoga. Invading Canada Is Not Advisable
We’ve tried before. It didn’t work out.
Bettmann / Getty Europe Can’t Trust the U.S. Anymore
One Trump administration was a mistake; two Trump administrations will be read, correctly, as a divergence that can never be repaired.
Michele Tantussi / Getty Russia Is Losing the War of Attrition
Ukraine is not on the verge of collapse. That makes the Trump administration’s decisions particularly shortsighted and tragic.
Yan Dobronosov / AFP / Getty Lawful, but Enormously Destructive
Trump’s purge of the Pentagon leadership will have long-lasting and damaging consequences.
Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg / Getty Incompetence Leavened With Malignity
The Trump administration’s Ukraine policy is liable to end in disaster.
Evelyn Hockstein / AFP / Getty Listen Closely to What Hegseth Is Saying
The defense secretary is signaling a major shift.
Guy Peterson / Panos Pictures / Redux American History Is Key to Understanding Trump
The best analogies to understand the U.S. president can be found right in the United States.
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Trump Can’t Escape the Laws of Political Gravity
Sooner or later, nature will catch up to the president.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Scott Olson / Getty. The U.S. Needs Soldiers, Not Warriors
Pete Hegseth has vowed to bring a warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. It’s a terrible idea.
Hilary Swift / The New York Times / Redux
