Jonathan Kirshner Journalist Profile

Articles

Trump and the Perils of Ungoverning

Jan 23, 2025 | foreignaffairs.com | Elliott Abrams |Russell Muirhead |Nancy L. Rosenblum |Jonathan Kirshner

As U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House, it already seems clear that his second term will look little like his first. Many of Trump’s first-term appointments distanced themselves from his views and even denounced him. “I picked some people I shouldn’t have picked,” Trump lamented on Joe Rogan’s podcast last November. “Disloyal people.” This time, Trump is ready.
Trump’s “America First” Is Not Realism

Jan 22, 2025 | foreignaffairs.com | Elliott Abrams |Joshua Kurlantzick |Jonathan Kirshner |Richard Fontaine

Some observers have approvingly claimed that the second Trump administration heralds a realist revival in American foreign policy. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Robert O'Brien, who served as national security adviser in the first Trump administration, eagerly promised “the return of realism with a Jacksonian flavor.”This view is gravely mistaken. Realists often disagree, sometimes sharply, about the best course of action, so it is not easy to say what a “realist foreign policy” is.
The folly of America First

Sep 22, 2024 | unherd.com | Jonathan Kirshner

America FirstChinaDonald TrumpForeign PolicyisolationismMiddle EastPoliticsProtectionismTariffsUS In his 2017 inauguration speech, Donald Trump made a vow to the American people: âA new vision will govern our land, from this day forward, itâs going to be only America first.â Every decision on trade, taxes and foreign affairs, he continued, will âbe made to benefit American workers and American familiesâ. Today, Trump is campaigning on that same premise: if he wins the election in...
Secrets, Lies, and Censorship

Aug 14, 2024 | bostonreview.net | Jonathan Kirshner

Asghar Farhadi, Iran’s most renowned living director, was actively interested in filmmaking from his teens, but at the University of Tehran, the admissions office instructed him to study theater instead, the subject in which he earned a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree.
Reviving Classical Realism – Tony Spanakos

Aug 14, 2024 | lawliberty.org | Jonathan Kirshner |Tony Spanakos |Wilfred Reilly |Helen Dale

Some of the most technically trained analysts, academic and otherwise, were caught unprepared by major developments in global affairs in recent years. The course of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the rise of nationalism and populism throughout much of the world, and the series of coups in African countries closely aligned with the West, among other things, have bewildered even the most seasoned of analysts.
The Fault Lies Not with the Polycrisis

Apr 21, 2024 | blueblaze.substack.com | Jonathan Kirshner

As if we didn’t have enough problems, or, perhaps because we have too many problems, informed opinion now holds the view that we are in the midst of a “polycrisis.” Although not quite a Kobayashi Maru (look that up if you must), polycrisis implies a tsunami of dangers from which there is no obvious safe passage.
Naming the Unnamed War

Mar 7, 2024 | bostonreview.net | Jonathan Kirshner

“Renoir himself claimed that a film director should have the arrogance to believe that he can change the world but the modesty to believe that if he succeeds in deeply moving four people, it’s a victory,” the great French director Bertrand Tavernier once observed. That wisdom may apply to Tavernier’s own 1992 documentary, La Guerre sans Nom (The War with No Name).
Jonathan Kirshner, Wenders, Canonized — Sidecar

Feb 2, 2024 | newleftreview.org | Jonathan Kirshner

The acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders was born in Dusseldorf in August 1945. These two biographical facts set the trajectory of his career. Along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta, among others, Wenders became a key figure of the New German Cinema, a movement forged by that first postwar generation born into the ruins of the Third Reich.
It’s a Good Time to Leave the Persian Gulf

Mar 22, 2023 | nationalinterest.org | Jonathan Kirshner

In a notable and unexpected political achievement, China has brokered a deal between bitter foes Saudi Arabia and Iran. The rival states agreed to reestablish formal diplomatic relations, restore bilateral flows of trade and investment, and breathe new life into a lapsed security cooperation agreement.
Jonathan Kirshner, Highbrow’s Enemy — Sidecar

Feb 3, 2023 | newleftreview.org | Jonathan Kirshner

An enormously promising title, Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation arrives suggesting a tantalizing combination of coming-of-age movie memoir and deep dive into the spectacular films of the 1970s – Hollywood’s last golden age – via a celebrated and accomplished filmmaker with an infectious enthusiasm for the movies and a breathtaking facility with an impossible number of features, renowned and obscure.