Jeffrey Engel

Every generation faces crises. Yet only three times in our nation’s history has the republic’s very existence been in doubt. George Washington left his well-earned retirement to provide a symbol of stability and virtue the new nation would not have formed without. Abraham Lincoln oversaw a country rent in two. Franklin D. Roosevelt governed during an economic crisis so great many wondered if democracy itself could survive. Today our politically-riven nation may well face only the fourth existential crisis in its long history, and only the lessons of the past can help navigate the rocky shoals ahead.

George Washington set precedents. Lincoln preserved the union. But only Franklin D. Roosevelt won the nation’s highest office four times. Only Roosevelt faced an economic crisis so severe it remains our benchmark for calamity. Only Roosevelt saw a world on the brink, knowing that his leadership was all that stood between isolationism and war. Known to subsequent generations by his easily-recalled initials, FDR, he defined American politics for a generation and for generations to come. He’s not here with us now. If he were, what would he say and do?

The Cold War shouldn’t have ended peacefully. Rarely if ever throughout world history has a great power collapsed without an ensuing great power war. Never before had the world faced an empire’s collapse with 20,000 nuclear weapons in the mix. The story of the Cold War’s surprisingly peaceful end is both remarkable, and largely unknown. The Berlin Wall opened by accident, for example. Nuclear war nearly occurred several times as well, beyond the public’s eye. German reunification, meanwhile, terrified past witnesses to that nation’s violent past yet also set the tone for the international system we still inhabit today. Examining our surprising survival reveals what really matters in times of crisis: the character of our leaders…and luck.

US-Russian relations are at a new post-Cold War low. But those tensions go far beyond the current crisis over Ukraine. Russian-American antagonisms stem instead from long-standing geopolitical differences — different worldviews, really — held by American and Russian leaders since the Cold War’s End. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev set the stage for change, but only one man has been a constant in their critical bilateral relationship since: Vladimir Putin. His personal story reveals much of why the world is at war with Russia today, a story told through the evolution of his relationship with the U.S. Presidents he’s known: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.