Thank you for a generous and thoughtful note. Your newsletter is a marvellous thing. I hope you will not become too deeply engaged in the immediate future with the obvious events of British domestic politics, simply because these are not of great consequence to the world, and are well covered in British newspapers. Might you perhaps tell us more about what serious thinkers in Britain are saying about the world around them?
I’m in the uk saw Lawrence on a discussion programme a few weeks ago and want to hear more of his thinking. I’m not on social media so I tracked him down and here I am. I’m mid 50’s artist and therapist.
Like several others, I have arrived here via The Bulwark.
I was born behind the Iron Curtain. Ever since I was 9 or 10 my parents and I would huddle together every night to listen to the heavily jammed Free Europe political broadcasts. So, yes, I have had politics in my blood for a long time.
Disappointed by the post Revolution political events I was lucky enough to be able to leave Romania for the United States. 30 years later, I find myself in North Carolina being, again, disappointed by national (and international) political events.
Left of center politically, I am interested in news and analysis about the political left parties mainly from Europe and the Anglo world but also from all over the rest of the world. I love the analysis of the war in Ukraine in this blog and I look forward to reading more about UK politics.
My background is in echocardiography (obtaining heart images by ultrasound which help cardiologists make or confirm diagnoses).
I discovered you via The Triad, a substack (under The Bulwark) written by Jonathan Last (https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=menu), in which Last has referenced your substack at least twice in recent weeks as he writes about the invasion. I especially recommend Last's "Reality Is a Tank" (https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/reality-is-a-tank?s=r), the title having become a mantra as I process the many ways Western liberal democracies aided and abetted Putin's conclusion that we would not do much if he invaded Ukraine. I'm very heartened that we have proved him wrong, but also concerned that we continue to rely too much on the power of words and norms whereas Putin demonstrates yet again that ... reality is a tank.
I'm American, retired university prof/admin with lots of time to read about major current events (e.g., the atrocity of Covid and our largely confused, ineffectual response dominated my reading prior to the invasion - Thanks, Putin, for providing a new obsession!). The future topics you listed are of interest as another overarching concern is what I view as the decadence of our Western world - Trump, Brexit, Boris, 'The Big Lie' being some of the more cautionary exemplars of that decadence. That being said, I have appreciated your Russia-Ukraine writings because they don't require me to have expertise in military tactics/history/etc., but provide a framework to assist a general reader in understanding what's happening and perhaps why.
Finally, many thanks for your excellent reading recommendations. I've bookmarked them all and so far have read Maria Stepanova's excellent FT essay. She captures my sense of having awakened into an absurdist play, one authored by an atavistic sociopath name Vlad Putin. [Stream-of-consciousness aside: I'm reminded of Pirindello's 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' - though surely the Ukrainian people had no desire for Putin to pen this play ....] Reading Stepanova, I heard Dave Matthews 'Don't Drink the Water' playing in my mind and imagined his performing the song while wearing a Putin face mask (which he does NOT do here): https://youtu.be/xeHDpCx4ULg
Enough already ....! Thanks for making me think and helping me think.
My own expertise is in Virology, so for two years I have been watching in horror as noisy fools drowned out expertise. I myself have posted quite a lot on social media during this pandemic, in an effort to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Since I have deep expertise relevant to COVID-19, gained from more than two decades of participating in Infectious Disease research (which included helping put five antiviral drugs on the market), I am able to tell sense from nonsense in the field of Virology.
But I lack relevant expertise for understanding the Ukraine War. I've only been to that part of the world once, and the USSR still existed when I was there. So I have been looking for high quality sources of informed discussion of the Ukraine War.
How I found this blog was, I began looking for people on Twitter who (1) had actual relevant credentials, (2) whose tweets seemed thoughtful and balanced, and (3) above all other criteria HAD BEEN TWEETING WITH SOME DETAIL ON EASTERN EUROPE BEFORE FEBRUARY 2021.
I then looked at which people those who fit the above three criteria themselves seemed to respect.
I'm a new subscriber. I'm a 47 y.o. software engineer / manager out of Los Angeles, with an interest in current events generally. The Ukraine coverage brought me here, and I'm not sure yet what other overlap there might be between my interest and what I will find here.
Thank you so much for these excellent articles! I found you via my Anglophile uncle in Austin, Texas, who reads the London Times every day among other things. I live in Sacramento, CA, and I’m an archaeologist by trade (mostly precontact sites in California and the Great Basin) but I visited East Germany, Leningrad, and Riga during a year abroad in W. Germany in 1986 and I’ve been fascinated by these places and their brethren ever since. A question: why has there been so little introspection by Putin and his elites around the collapse of the USSR and their failure to come up with a better replacement than extraction and graft? Is it the KGB mindset? Or bad habits dating from the czars? So much brilliance in Russia, as you say, and their government fails them at every turn.
Generally speaking I’m also interested in pandemics, American (gag) politics, and climate change policy, and would love to hear your thoughts on those when there’s time. But those are just the big ones. Odds are I’ll read it if you write it. Also, thank you for the book reviews!
Thank you both for your excellent and thought provoking articles, which I have been following since the invasion of Ukraine. I am from the UK and served as a Junior NCO in Iraq (2004) and Afghanistan (2007). I now work as an Emergency Planning Officer in the NHS. Back in 2019-20 I studied for an MA in Intelligence and Security Studies at evening classes at the University of Salford, and your fathers book 'Strategy' was one of the course text books for the module on Security and Strategic Studies. All the very best, Alan
I've followed Sam and Lawrence on Twitter for quite some time and very pleased to pay to subscribe to this Substack. Every topic covered is done so thoughtfully and knowledgeably, without the subject being approached in an ideological way (whereas with many commentators you know what they're going to say before they've said it). I like the mix of expertise you both bring to it. On Sam's side I'd love to read more about education policy - in particular if you ever have time to look at the situation in Scotland where I live. School pupil attainment is falling behind England and the SNP have pulled out of international education rankings. It's harder for kids from low income families to get into University in Scotland than in England because free tuition means places for Scottish students are severely restricted (especially on degrees such as medicine). What should the Scottish Government be doing to address these myriad issues? Lastly delighted to hear your health is much improved Sam, all the best
You were recommended by JVL's Triad Substack blog (he's a Bulwark editor).
As to my background: I've been involved with American political struggles since my head was turned around by my "fly on the wall" participation in the Tonkin Gulf Incident (enlisted member of the Admiral's staff in charge of the destroyers) and my discovery a month later that it was all a lie. This includes 7 years in the "war against the war" and 10 years as a "professional political player" in California state and local politics 40+ years ago.
I have both a BA and MA in History (BA in "interdisciplinary social science" with a lot of Poli Sci, Economics, Sociology, Psychology as well as History).
I am presently a successful author of military history with specialization in aviation: a "quadrilogy" on the Pacific War, a trilogy on the Korean War, and two books on Vietnam (covering USN and USAF air combat, with lots of input from the VPAF history), as well as the true history of the "Catch-22 Bomb Wing" Joe Heller wrote about.
Thus, I was familiar with your father's work before coming here.
As can be seen with the sign-in, I have a Substack blog, "That's Another Fine Mess", a political blog about current events.
I like the stuff you are doing here.
I also wrote some movies that got made during 30+ years in "Okeefenokee West," aka Hollywood, and the sense of drama and visual sense learned there permeates the non-fic writing. I like having the power my friend novelist Michael Connelly attributes to non-fiction authors: "Non-fiction writers can bring the dead back to life."
I was born in London, grew up in Canada, studied engineering, became a dancer while squatting and busking in London. Sixteen years in NYC, 33 as Professor of Dance at Florida State. Now retired in Vancouver, Canada, and playing recorders! Mum worked at Bletchley, Dad was invalided out of the Royal Navy after trying to get some advanced radar equipment out of a sunk sub north of Murmansk in winter. Clicked on a Lawrence Freedman article posted to FaceBook and found myself reading to the distant end. I’ve appreciated your thinking and writing on Ukraine and Russia, and even on your health and life challenges. I would be most interested in informed analysis of world events. May all beings find peace….
OMG, a personal reply! Wouldn‘t have thought you’d have time, but thanks. I tried to make it as brief as possible while being inclusive. Keep up the good work.
Hello Sam. I am an American who heard about your newsletter from Jonathan Last at the Bulwark. Jonathan recommended your newsletter to his readers as a great source for learning about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was right! Keep up the great work. Mark
In response to your interest in the lives of your new subscribers, I am a retired woman living in Jersey City, New Jersey. I have followed politics since my childhood because of the influence of my father and grandfather. I have belonged to two congregations led by British rabbis. I am interested in the state of the Jewish people in the UK. I would also like to know your opinions about the Middle East in general and about Israel and the Palestinians in particular.
Thank you for your interesting and thoughtful newsletters. I am an "airforce brat" (RCAF) and a child of the Cold War, now living in Toronto, Canada. I was sent one of your Ukraine newsletters by a friend who grew up in Canada and lives in the UK. (We share an interest in the whys and wherefores of world events, whether it be wars or pandemics.) It was a good counterpoint to coverage in Canada and the US, so I signed up.
I'm a software engineer residing in Melbourne, Australia. I'm subscribing only because of your excellent analysis of the Russo-Ukraine war that I'm unable to obtain elsewhere. For other geopolitical topics I'm content with The Economist.
Thank you for a generous and thoughtful note. Your newsletter is a marvellous thing. I hope you will not become too deeply engaged in the immediate future with the obvious events of British domestic politics, simply because these are not of great consequence to the world, and are well covered in British newspapers. Might you perhaps tell us more about what serious thinkers in Britain are saying about the world around them?
Thanks Robert! And good point about the day to day events of British politics.
I’m in the uk saw Lawrence on a discussion programme a few weeks ago and want to hear more of his thinking. I’m not on social media so I tracked him down and here I am. I’m mid 50’s artist and therapist.
Like several others, I have arrived here via The Bulwark.
I was born behind the Iron Curtain. Ever since I was 9 or 10 my parents and I would huddle together every night to listen to the heavily jammed Free Europe political broadcasts. So, yes, I have had politics in my blood for a long time.
Disappointed by the post Revolution political events I was lucky enough to be able to leave Romania for the United States. 30 years later, I find myself in North Carolina being, again, disappointed by national (and international) political events.
Left of center politically, I am interested in news and analysis about the political left parties mainly from Europe and the Anglo world but also from all over the rest of the world. I love the analysis of the war in Ukraine in this blog and I look forward to reading more about UK politics.
My background is in echocardiography (obtaining heart images by ultrasound which help cardiologists make or confirm diagnoses).
I discovered you via The Triad, a substack (under The Bulwark) written by Jonathan Last (https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=menu), in which Last has referenced your substack at least twice in recent weeks as he writes about the invasion. I especially recommend Last's "Reality Is a Tank" (https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/reality-is-a-tank?s=r), the title having become a mantra as I process the many ways Western liberal democracies aided and abetted Putin's conclusion that we would not do much if he invaded Ukraine. I'm very heartened that we have proved him wrong, but also concerned that we continue to rely too much on the power of words and norms whereas Putin demonstrates yet again that ... reality is a tank.
I'm American, retired university prof/admin with lots of time to read about major current events (e.g., the atrocity of Covid and our largely confused, ineffectual response dominated my reading prior to the invasion - Thanks, Putin, for providing a new obsession!). The future topics you listed are of interest as another overarching concern is what I view as the decadence of our Western world - Trump, Brexit, Boris, 'The Big Lie' being some of the more cautionary exemplars of that decadence. That being said, I have appreciated your Russia-Ukraine writings because they don't require me to have expertise in military tactics/history/etc., but provide a framework to assist a general reader in understanding what's happening and perhaps why.
Finally, many thanks for your excellent reading recommendations. I've bookmarked them all and so far have read Maria Stepanova's excellent FT essay. She captures my sense of having awakened into an absurdist play, one authored by an atavistic sociopath name Vlad Putin. [Stream-of-consciousness aside: I'm reminded of Pirindello's 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' - though surely the Ukrainian people had no desire for Putin to pen this play ....] Reading Stepanova, I heard Dave Matthews 'Don't Drink the Water' playing in my mind and imagined his performing the song while wearing a Putin face mask (which he does NOT do here): https://youtu.be/xeHDpCx4ULg
Enough already ....! Thanks for making me think and helping me think.
My own expertise is in Virology, so for two years I have been watching in horror as noisy fools drowned out expertise. I myself have posted quite a lot on social media during this pandemic, in an effort to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Since I have deep expertise relevant to COVID-19, gained from more than two decades of participating in Infectious Disease research (which included helping put five antiviral drugs on the market), I am able to tell sense from nonsense in the field of Virology.
But I lack relevant expertise for understanding the Ukraine War. I've only been to that part of the world once, and the USSR still existed when I was there. So I have been looking for high quality sources of informed discussion of the Ukraine War.
How I found this blog was, I began looking for people on Twitter who (1) had actual relevant credentials, (2) whose tweets seemed thoughtful and balanced, and (3) above all other criteria HAD BEEN TWEETING WITH SOME DETAIL ON EASTERN EUROPE BEFORE FEBRUARY 2021.
I then looked at which people those who fit the above three criteria themselves seemed to respect.
I'm a new subscriber. I'm a 47 y.o. software engineer / manager out of Los Angeles, with an interest in current events generally. The Ukraine coverage brought me here, and I'm not sure yet what other overlap there might be between my interest and what I will find here.
Thank you so much for these excellent articles! I found you via my Anglophile uncle in Austin, Texas, who reads the London Times every day among other things. I live in Sacramento, CA, and I’m an archaeologist by trade (mostly precontact sites in California and the Great Basin) but I visited East Germany, Leningrad, and Riga during a year abroad in W. Germany in 1986 and I’ve been fascinated by these places and their brethren ever since. A question: why has there been so little introspection by Putin and his elites around the collapse of the USSR and their failure to come up with a better replacement than extraction and graft? Is it the KGB mindset? Or bad habits dating from the czars? So much brilliance in Russia, as you say, and their government fails them at every turn.
Generally speaking I’m also interested in pandemics, American (gag) politics, and climate change policy, and would love to hear your thoughts on those when there’s time. But those are just the big ones. Odds are I’ll read it if you write it. Also, thank you for the book reviews!
Best Regards,
Kathy
Thank you both for your excellent and thought provoking articles, which I have been following since the invasion of Ukraine. I am from the UK and served as a Junior NCO in Iraq (2004) and Afghanistan (2007). I now work as an Emergency Planning Officer in the NHS. Back in 2019-20 I studied for an MA in Intelligence and Security Studies at evening classes at the University of Salford, and your fathers book 'Strategy' was one of the course text books for the module on Security and Strategic Studies. All the very best, Alan
I've followed Sam and Lawrence on Twitter for quite some time and very pleased to pay to subscribe to this Substack. Every topic covered is done so thoughtfully and knowledgeably, without the subject being approached in an ideological way (whereas with many commentators you know what they're going to say before they've said it). I like the mix of expertise you both bring to it. On Sam's side I'd love to read more about education policy - in particular if you ever have time to look at the situation in Scotland where I live. School pupil attainment is falling behind England and the SNP have pulled out of international education rankings. It's harder for kids from low income families to get into University in Scotland than in England because free tuition means places for Scottish students are severely restricted (especially on degrees such as medicine). What should the Scottish Government be doing to address these myriad issues? Lastly delighted to hear your health is much improved Sam, all the best
You were recommended by JVL's Triad Substack blog (he's a Bulwark editor).
As to my background: I've been involved with American political struggles since my head was turned around by my "fly on the wall" participation in the Tonkin Gulf Incident (enlisted member of the Admiral's staff in charge of the destroyers) and my discovery a month later that it was all a lie. This includes 7 years in the "war against the war" and 10 years as a "professional political player" in California state and local politics 40+ years ago.
I have both a BA and MA in History (BA in "interdisciplinary social science" with a lot of Poli Sci, Economics, Sociology, Psychology as well as History).
I am presently a successful author of military history with specialization in aviation: a "quadrilogy" on the Pacific War, a trilogy on the Korean War, and two books on Vietnam (covering USN and USAF air combat, with lots of input from the VPAF history), as well as the true history of the "Catch-22 Bomb Wing" Joe Heller wrote about.
Thus, I was familiar with your father's work before coming here.
As can be seen with the sign-in, I have a Substack blog, "That's Another Fine Mess", a political blog about current events.
I like the stuff you are doing here.
I also wrote some movies that got made during 30+ years in "Okeefenokee West," aka Hollywood, and the sense of drama and visual sense learned there permeates the non-fic writing. I like having the power my friend novelist Michael Connelly attributes to non-fiction authors: "Non-fiction writers can bring the dead back to life."
I was born in London, grew up in Canada, studied engineering, became a dancer while squatting and busking in London. Sixteen years in NYC, 33 as Professor of Dance at Florida State. Now retired in Vancouver, Canada, and playing recorders! Mum worked at Bletchley, Dad was invalided out of the Royal Navy after trying to get some advanced radar equipment out of a sunk sub north of Murmansk in winter. Clicked on a Lawrence Freedman article posted to FaceBook and found myself reading to the distant end. I’ve appreciated your thinking and writing on Ukraine and Russia, and even on your health and life challenges. I would be most interested in informed analysis of world events. May all beings find peace….
Wow - that life story would make a good post!
OMG, a personal reply! Wouldn‘t have thought you’d have time, but thanks. I tried to make it as brief as possible while being inclusive. Keep up the good work.
Hello Sam. I am an American who heard about your newsletter from Jonathan Last at the Bulwark. Jonathan recommended your newsletter to his readers as a great source for learning about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was right! Keep up the great work. Mark
In response to your interest in the lives of your new subscribers, I am a retired woman living in Jersey City, New Jersey. I have followed politics since my childhood because of the influence of my father and grandfather. I have belonged to two congregations led by British rabbis. I am interested in the state of the Jewish people in the UK. I would also like to know your opinions about the Middle East in general and about Israel and the Palestinians in particular.
Thank you for your interesting and thoughtful newsletters. I am an "airforce brat" (RCAF) and a child of the Cold War, now living in Toronto, Canada. I was sent one of your Ukraine newsletters by a friend who grew up in Canada and lives in the UK. (We share an interest in the whys and wherefores of world events, whether it be wars or pandemics.) It was a good counterpoint to coverage in Canada and the US, so I signed up.
Thank you for the book recommendations!
I'm a software engineer residing in Melbourne, Australia. I'm subscribing only because of your excellent analysis of the Russo-Ukraine war that I'm unable to obtain elsewhere. For other geopolitical topics I'm content with The Economist.