Ron Pruessen

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    Biden’s post-Afghanistan foreign policy pragmatism may be wishful thinking given the history of hubris in American leadership

Biden’s post-Afghanistan foreign policy pragmatism may be wishful thinking given the history of hubris in American leadership

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Completing the withdrawal from Afghanistan is a major foreign policy milestone in the first year of the Biden presidency. Is it promising, perilous – or pending? Ron Pruessen considers “over-the-horizon” possibilities in light of the foreign policy hubris of presidents past.

August 31, 2021: “Last night in Kabul,” President Joe Biden announced, “the United States ended 20 years of war […]

September 23rd, 2021|Featured, Ron Pruessen, US foreign affairs and the North American neighbourhood|0 Comments|
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    Biden’s victory is a point of renewal. But the resiliency of Trumpism means challenges lie ahead.

Biden’s victory is a point of renewal. But the resiliency of Trumpism means challenges lie ahead.

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Ron Pruessen joins millions in celebrating Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election. He also worries about the potential of “Trumpism” to limit the lifespan of this renewed positivity in the months and years ahead – not least because this would echo past patterns in America’s political history.

Watching a recent webcast of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, I was […]

December 3rd, 2020|Democracy and culture, Ron Pruessen|0 Comments|
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    In 2020, US politics are once again a volatile cauldron. Both progress and disappointment are the likely result.

In 2020, US politics are once again a volatile cauldron. Both progress and disappointment are the likely result.

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens wrote the famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities in 1859, but it feels very appropriate in the United States of 2020. But which of the two clauses deserves the most emphasis today? Ron Pruessen argues that history tells us that neither can […]

August 20th, 2020|Ron Pruessen, U.S. History|0 Comments|
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    Trump’s appeals to America’s past and nostalgia in the face of new problems are closing off new ways to tackle them

Trump’s appeals to America’s past and nostalgia in the face of new problems are closing off new ways to tackle them

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President Trump’s lamentations about a foreign language film winning “best picture” at the 2020 Academy Awards has opened an unexpected window into important features of American thinking that are based on nostalgia and fears about loss, writes Ron Pruessen. Trump’s populist efforts to counter latent fears about American decline are nothing new, he argues; presidents from JFK to Barack […]

March 12th, 2020|Democracy and culture, Ron Pruessen|1 Comment|
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    Trump’s crude anti-elitism is nothing new in the American story

Trump’s crude anti-elitism is nothing new in the American story

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It is not hard to find Americans (and non-Americans) fervently hoping for the end of the Trump presidency in 2020 whether via impeachment or a Democratic presidential election victory. Ron Pruessen writes that the appeal of removing Trump from office should be set against the backdrop of the darker impulses of American history and culture – traditions which Trump […]

January 15th, 2020|Elections and party politics across the US, Ron Pruessen|0 Comments|
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    For US presidents, egocentrism often comes with the territory. But Donald Trump’s narcissism is something new.

For US presidents, egocentrism often comes with the territory. But Donald Trump’s narcissism is something new.

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Donald Trump, self-styled “stable genius,” has outdone other US presidents in one respect, Ron Pruessen suggests. He has taken the sometimes valuable, sometimes problematic egotism routinely endemic to White House occupants and pathologized it into profoundly costly and dangerous narcissism.

It’s hard to avoid encountering the word “narcissist” in discussions of Donald Trump. One recent prompt: the president’s tweet about […]

November 7th, 2019|Ron Pruessen, U.S. History|1 Comment|
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    The imperial audacity of Trump’s magical thinking is nothing new for the US presidency

The imperial audacity of Trump’s magical thinking is nothing new for the US presidency

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Recent months have seen the escalation of Donald Trump’s appetite for magical thinking, particularly with respect to winning trade wars and masterminding regime change in Iran. Unfortunately, as Ron Pruessen suggests, Trump is not unique in the history of US foreign policy in his periodic divorce from reality.

As the war with Iraq was starting in 2003, the story goes […]

June 11th, 2019|Elections and party politics across the US, Ron Pruessen|0 Comments|
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    In politics, dysfunctionality has always been the American way

In politics, dysfunctionality has always been the American way

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“Dysfunctional” has become an inescapable adjective in discussions of American government in the Age of Trump – for good reason. Ron Pruessen suggests that dysfunctionality has deep roots in American history. As both an operational reality and an often-unappreciated intellectual current, it has staying power that will still be in play when a 46th president (hopefully sooner, perhaps later) […]

February 20th, 2019|Elections and party politics across the US, Ron Pruessen|0 Comments|
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    The midterms may have marked the slow beginnings of America’s post-2016 healing process

The midterms may have marked the slow beginnings of America’s post-2016 healing process

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Ron Pruessen has argued that the 2018 off-year elections revealed more complex patterns than much instant analysis seemed to appreciate. Where to go beyond that basic (and perhaps obvious) contention? Here he describes – a month after Election Day – his own still-conflicted readings of the results.

David Axelrod has written that election campaigns are “MRIs of the soul” – […]

December 12th, 2018|Elections and party politics across the US, Ron Pruessen|0 Comments|
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    Why talking about Red and Blue States doesn’t help our understanding of the 2018 midterms

Why talking about Red and Blue States doesn’t help our understanding of the 2018 midterms

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Attempts to decipher the meaning of the 2018 elections will be more successful if they steer clear of “Red State/Blue State”-style simplification.  Ron Pruessen argues that a country of 325 million people – with a constantly tangled history – should not be squeezed into snappy tweets and memes.

Dramatic elections like the recent “off-year” contests in the US often prompt […]

November 23rd, 2018|Elections and party politics across the US, Ron Pruessen|0 Comments|
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