The White House national security adviser HR McMaster insists the evidence of Russian efforts to subvert US democracy is incontrovertible. His boss Donald Trump thinks the Federal Bureau of Investigation has better things to do than investigate the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been a big part of the reason for rising global insecurity. The absence of sober American leadership is now a bigger one.
The latest gathering of foreign policy and defence chiefs at the Munich Security Conference was nothing if not gloomy. Speaker after speaker stepped up to the podium to recite the list of threats. Mr Putin’s meddling in western elections sits alongside Russian revanchism in Ukraine; violent chaos in Syria and beyond, together with the spread of Islamist terrorism; North Korea’s quest for long-range nuclear missiles; and Beijing’s military build-up in the South China Sea.
More unnerving than any one flashpoint is the pervasive sense of powerlessness. It was one thing to enunciate the challenges. Missing was anything much in the way of solutions. We must all stick together, show resolve. This is what politicians say when they are lost. Resolve to what purpose?