International | A column on world affairs

The Telegram: our new guide to a dangerous world

The old order is dying. Our geopolitics columnist will tell you what’s coming next

Illustration of a paper airplane made of text flies toward a globe on a red background.
Illustration: Chloe Cushman

IN FEBRUARY 1946, in the depths of a Moscow winter, an American diplomat sent a remarkable cable to Washington. On paper, George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” was a reply to a query about the Soviet worldview. In reality, Kennan was proposing a strategy for managing superpower competition—an approach that he later called “containment”. The Soviet Union had no interest in friendship, but did not seek a third world war, Kennan explained. Communist rulers were impervious to the “logic of reason”, but understood the “logic of force” and knew their regime to be weaker than a united West. If Soviet expansionism were countered around the world, then a “general military conflict” could be avoided, until one day the USSR either mellowed or crumbled.

Explore more

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Introducing our new geopolitics column”

From the November 2nd 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from International

A helicopter flies above Houthi forces boarding the cargo ship Galaxy Leader.

Inside the Houthis’ moneymaking machine

After a ceasefire in Gaza, they may continue their Red Sea racket

An illustration of a side profile portrait of Xi Jinping with his eyes on a globe showing South America.

Marco Rubio will find China is hard to beat in Latin America

China buys lithium, copper and bull semen, and doesn’t export its ideology


An illustration of Donald Trump pushing down on a lever with one foot, attempting to lift the globe on the other side.

Donald Trump has a strong foreign-policy hand, but could blow it

Bullying foreigners can be sadly effective, but also a dangerous distraction


Women warriors and the war on woke

Trump’s Pentagon pick wants women off the battlefield

Young people are having less fun

Youthful excess continues to decline

Why people over the age of 55 are the new problem generation

Baby-boomers are keeping their bad habits into retirement