On What Really Matters, Walter Russell Mead discusses the possibility of a recession, the new Chinese railway in Africa, and how Donald Trump’s approach to Vladimir Putin compares with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s to Joseph Stalin and Richard Nixon’s to Leonid Brezhnev.
Caption
Black smoke rises from the area of Gazprom Neft’s Moscow oil refinery on the southeastern outskirts of Moscow on June 18, 2026. (Getty Images)