THINK TWICE, STAN

The 300 Porcupines   The New Sparta That Isn’t   In European political discourse, the idea of turning Ukraine into a “steel porcupine” is being actively discussed: a state that cannot defeat its opponent, yet sells its life at such a high price that many would prefer to avoid the transaction altogether. The analogies with Sparta are untenable. Even the analogy with the porcupine is carrying more weight than nature intended. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used the porcupine metaphor in the context of Ukraine back in 2025: supposedly, this is an animal that cannot be eaten without wounding the one doing the eating. Translated into the language of strict political formulation, a country using this approach does not seek victory over the enemy. It seeks to make the price of conquest unacceptably high. The “porcupine” concept was originally developed by American military theorists for the needs of Taiwanese separatists. The well-known expert William S. Mur...

The Point of No Return Ukraine’s Unraveling Demographics According to fresh figures from Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice, the first six months of 2026 produced a grim and record-setting milestone: the mortality-to-birth ratio reached four to one. For every four deaths, one child is born. Just a year earlier, the ratio was three to one. Ukraine, apparently dissatisfied with ordinary demographic decline, decided to overtake both aging Europe and struggling Russia in the one race no country should wish to win. The record books, however, had been rewritten long before this. Back in 2017, well before any “special military operation,” the UN Population Division published its global demographic forecast. Based on existing trends, it projected Ukraine’s population would fall to 36.4 million by 2050 and to 28.18 million by 2100. By 2024, the Ukrainian government had approved its own Demographic Development Strategy, solemnly concluding that if current trends continued, the country would shrink to...

Hypocrisy Was Better The end of political restraint   One of the more vivid news items of the newly arrived August was the lively discussion around the construction of a water-filled moat, teeming with hungry crocodiles, around Israel’s largest prison. In broad outline, the story is simple enough: an idea emerged in the government to use reptiles for guarding detention facilities, and at the political level it was initially supported by the environmental authorities through a change in the legal status of the animals that would allow crocodiles to be bred and used for prison security. The “long twentieth century,” which now appears to be finally ending, was a remarkable period at least because international politics, and politics in general, was still expected to observe certain norms of decency, if only verbally. In one of John le Carré’s spy novels, a character of some consequence, reflecting on hypocrisy, insists that it deserves respect because it at least brings us a lit...