After the end of the Cold War, the United States could have done so much to continue the advance to an even more effective, rules-based system where law governed relations between states. Instead, today’s America has pushed these high aspirations and noble principles aside and led us, step by step, to a point of crisis. What went wrong?

It has been 17 years since the Soviet Union collapse. Measured against the post-World War I-era time frame, we are at about the equivalent of 1935. In 1935, no one would have confidently foreseen the major events to come - not just World War II but the invention of nuclear weaponry and the long struggle with the Soviet Union.

Will the United States put real pressure on Russia to stop? The prevailing view in our State Department: “While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia.”

In the seven years since Beijing was awarded the Olympic Games, the Communist Party has adapted and navigated its way forward, loosening its grip on elements of society even as it crushes or co-opts threats to its hold on political power.