Garry Kasparov

2 days ago | thenextmove.substack.com | Garry Kasparov

On a frigid December day nearly 340 years ago, two dozen Russian soldiers shuffled out of a fort on the north bank of the Amur River. Stranded thousands of miles from Moscow, the hungry and humiliated men were the only survivors of a Russian expedition many orders of magnitude larger, which was all but annihilated over a year of intermittent Chinese sieges. In 1689, the defeated Russians signed a treaty with the Qing Empire relinquishing many of their Far Eastern claims.

1 week ago | thenextmove.substack.com | Garry Kasparov

If Donald Trump succeeds in his latest quixotic exploit—designating May 8 as a national holiday called “Victory Day for World War II”—he may end up picking a fight with Vladimir Putin. All good Russians and former Soviets know that according to the Kremlin, Victory Day is not on May 8—when the Western Allies mark their triumph over Nazi Germany—but on May 9. Why the separate Soviet celebration?

1 week ago | thenextmove.substack.com | Garry Kasparov

With conflicts raging from Ukraine to Gaza, we have to think more about war than we have in a long time. But what does war as a concept mean for Americans today? Is the goal still to win or is it just to muddle through? If war is a tactic, then what strategy does it serve?

1 week ago | thenextmove.substack.com | Garry Kasparov

One area where I’m actually fairly aligned with the Trump administration—at least in theory—is on the question of European defense: European nations must do more to beat back Russian aggression on the continent. Ideally, this enhanced European role would be adopted in coordination with the United States.

1 week ago | thenextmove.substack.com | Garry Kasparov

By Colin WoodardAs a Russian-speaking half-Armenian, half-Jewish kid growing up in Soviet Azerbaijan, the complexity of nationhood and nationality was all around me. Every country inevitably faces an identity crisis, and it can feel especially fraught in a country like the United States: a multilingual, multiethnic, politically polarized democracy of over 350 million people. At The Next Move, we don't just want to focus on our nation's divisions, though.