John Mearsheimer - Revision history

RobSmith: /* Deep state slander campaign */

2026-01-30T17:00:45Z

Deep state slander campaign

RobSmith: /* Deep state slander campaign */

2026-01-30T17:00:24Z

Deep state slander campaign

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2026-01-30T16:49:01Z

External links

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2025-11-26T17:37:44Z

External links

RobSmith: /* Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger" */

2025-09-27T15:53:44Z

Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger"

RobSmith: /* Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger" */

2025-09-27T15:52:34Z

Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger"

RobSmith: /* Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger" */

2025-09-27T15:52:10Z

Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger"

RobSmith: /* Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger" */

2025-09-27T15:51:28Z

Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "paper tiger"

RobSmith at 15:50, September 27, 2025

2025-09-27T15:50:58Z

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2025-08-07T18:46:08Z

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← Older revision		Revision as of 17:00, January 30, 2026
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	This story, no matter how often it is repeated, is a [[myth]]. There is no evidence that Putin wants to incorporate all of Ukraine into Russia or seeks to conquer any other country in [[eastern Europe]]. Furthermore, Russia does not have the [[military]] capability to achieve that ambitious goal, much less become a European hegemon.<ref>[https://mondediplo.com/2023/08/02great-powers Great power rivalries: the case for realism], John J. Mearsheimer, ''Le Monde diplomatique'', August 2023.</ref>}}		This story, no matter how often it is repeated, is a [[myth]]. There is no evidence that Putin wants to incorporate all of Ukraine into Russia or seeks to conquer any other country in [[eastern Europe]]. Furthermore, Russia does not have the [[military]] capability to achieve that ambitious goal, much less become a European hegemon.<ref>[https://mondediplo.com/2023/08/02great-powers Great power rivalries: the case for realism], John J. Mearsheimer, ''Le Monde diplomatique'', August 2023.</ref>}}
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	== Books ==		== Books ==

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 ==Deep state slander campaign==
 {{See also|Russiagate|Ukrainian collusion|Biden crime family}}
 Prof. Mearsheimer describes Russia's relations with [[the West]] and [[Vladimir Putin]]'s ambitions as such:
 {{Cquote|The conventional wisdom in [[the West]] regarding the [[Ukraine war]] makes it sound like [[Russia]] is behaving in [[Europe]] the way [[China]] is acting in [[Asia]]. [[Putin]] is said to have [[imperialism|imperial]] ambitions that begin with creating a greater Russia along the lines of the old [[Soviet Union]] and then re-conquering the former buffer countries of the [[Warsaw Pact]], ultimately threatening the security of all Europe. Ukraine, which he purportedly aims to conquer and integrate into Russia, is his first but not his last target. In this view, what [[NATO]] is doing in Ukraine is containing Russian power, much the way it prevented the Soviet Union from dominating all of Europe during the [[cold war]].
-[[File:Applebaum.PNG|rright|350px|thumb|Global [[fascist]] and former ''[[NYT]]'' propagandist [[Anne Applebaum]] accused Prof. Mearsheimer of writing scripts for the [[Kremlin]].]]
 This story, no matter how often it is repeated, is a [[myth]]. There is no evidence that Putin wants to incorporate all of Ukraine into Russia or seeks to conquer any other country in [[eastern Europe]]. Furthermore, Russia does not have the [[military]] capability to achieve that ambitious goal, much less become a European hegemon.<ref>[https://mondediplo.com/2023/08/02great-powers Great power rivalries: the case for realism], John J. Mearsheimer, ''Le Monde diplomatique'', August 2023.</ref>}}

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 *[https://arnaudbertrand.substack.com/p/why-mearsheimer-is-wrong-on-china Why Mearsheimer is wrong on China], [[Arnaud Bertrand]], Jun 26, 2025
 *“[[Putin]] Is Acting [[Rational thinking|Rationally]]”—Mearsheimer Challenges [[Western alliance|Western]] [[Narrative]] on [[Ukraine]]. [https://youtu.be/RavlPsM3xdM]
 [[Category: Academics]]
 [[Category:International Relations]]

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 *[https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/49/4/7/130810/War-and-International-Politics War and International Politics Free], International Security (2025)
 *[https://arnaudbertrand.substack.com/p/why-mearsheimer-is-wrong-on-china Why Mearsheimer is wrong on China], [[Arnaud Bertrand]], Jun 26, 2025
-*“[[Putin]] Is Acting [[Rational thinking|Rationally]]”—Mearsheimer Challenges [[Western alliance|Western]] Narrative on Ukraine. [https://youtu.be/RavlPsM3xdM]
+*“[[Putin]] Is Acting [[Rational thinking|Rationally]]”—Mearsheimer Challenges [[Western alliance|Western]] [[Narrative]] on [[Ukraine]]. [https://youtu.be/RavlPsM3xdM]
 [[Category: Academics]]
 [[Category:International Relations]]

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 ==Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "[[paper tiger]]"==
-[[President Trump]] had urged Zelensky to make a deal with [[Russia]], specifically [[Vladimir Putin]] [[Ukrainian]] [[dictator]] [[Volodymyr Zelensky]] refused. Instead, Zelesnsky and his team first told retired General [[Keith Kellogg]], Trump’s special emissary to Ukraine, that Ukraine was "[[win]]ning" the [[war]] and would retake all lost territory. Zelensky also claimed that his [[drone]] attacks on Russia have ruined the Russian [[economy]] and sooner or later would force Russia to leave Ukraine. President Trump did the easy thing: he agreed with Zelensky, blasted Russia and Putin, said Russia was a "[[paper tiger]]" and that its economy would soon collapse.<ref>https://weapons.substack.com/p/trumps-truth-social-manifesto-on</ref> Prof. Mearsheimer was asked by [[Lt. Col. Danial Davis]] for his impressions:
+[[President Trump]] had urged Zelensky to make a deal with [[Russia]], specifically [[Vladimir Putin]] [[Ukrainian]] [[dictator]] [[Volodymyr Zelensky]] refused. Instead, Zelesnsky and his team first told retired General [[Keith Kellogg]], Trump’s special emissary to Ukraine, that Ukraine was "[[win]]ning" the [[war]] and would retake all lost territory. Zelensky also claimed that his [[drone]] attacks on Russia have ruined the Russian [[economy]] and sooner or later would force Russia to leave Ukraine. President Trump did the easy thing: he agreed with Zelensky, blasted Russia and Putin, said Russia was a "[[paper tiger]]" and that its economy would soon collapse.<ref>https://weapons.substack.com/p/trumps-truth-social-manifesto-on</ref> Prof. Mearsheimer was asked by [[Lt. Col. Daniel Davis]] for his impressions:
 [[File:Paper tiger.PNG|right|300px|thumb|Paper Tiger in [[Chinese]] New Year celebrations.]]
 {{Cquote|For those people who think [[Russia]]'s a [[paper tiger]], and there appear to be a number of people who are thinking in those terms these days, I think that what we ought to do is fly them over to [[Kiev]], put them in a uniform, put them on a truck, and then send them up to the front lines. Now, according to the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'', it's not clear they'll get to the front lines because that [[paper tiger]] is now tearing apart the lines of [[Ukrainian]] positions. And it's very hard for the Ukrainians to get troops from the rear up to the forward edge of the battle area. But let's assume that they get up there. Let them spend a couple weeks fighting against the [[Russian]]s. And if they're still alive after a couple weeks, they can tell us whether or not they think the Russians are a [[paper tiger]] or not. My guess is, that those who survive that scenario will tell us very clearly that the Russians are not a [[paper tiger]] and that the Ukrainians are at a great disadvantage and have their hands full dealing with this massively armed steamroller that's coming at them.<ref>https://youtu.be/oSPDBWDeYkY</ref>}}

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 ==Reaction to Donald Trump implying Russia is a "[[paper tiger]]"==
 [[File:Paper tiger.PNG|right|300px|thumb|Paper Tiger in [[Chinese]] [[New Year]] celebrations.]]
 {{Cquote|For those people who think [[Russia]]'s a [[paper tiger]], and there appear to be a number of people who are thinking in those terms these days, I think that what we ought to do is fly them over to [[Kiev]], put them in a uniform, put them on a truck, and then send them up to the front lines. Now, according to the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'', it's not clear they'll get to the front lines because that [[paper tiger]] is now tearing apart the lines of [[Ukrainian]] positions. And it's very hard for the Ukrainians to get troops from the rear up to the forward edge of the battle area. But let's assume that they get up there. Let them spend a couple weeks fighting against the [[Russian]]s. And if they're still alive after a couple weeks, they can tell us whether or not they think the Russians are a [[paper tiger]] or not. My guess is, that those who survive that scenario will tell us very clearly that the Russians are not a [[paper tiger]] and that the Ukrainians are at a great disadvantage and have their hands full dealing with this massively armed steamroller that's coming at them.<ref>https://youtu.be/oSPDBWDeYkY</ref>}}
 Within days, [[President Trump]] walked back his "paper tiger" remark.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NmTeLns1MQM  Trump: I will never call anybody a paper tiger again]</ref><ref>https://www.rt.com/news/625274-trump-wont-call-russia-paper-tiger-again/</ref>

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 '''John Joseph Mearsheimer''', is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, a graduate of the [[United States Military Academy at West Point]]. He earned his PhD at Cornell University. As of 2023 he teaches at the [[University of Chicago]]. Mearsheimer belongs to the [[realist school of international relations]].
-Due to [[Europe]]'s aging population which is projected to shrink and its various current and projected problems, Mearsheimer stated: “Europe doesn't matter anymore. You know, Europe is basically a giant museum.”<ref>[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10989704-europe-doesn-t-matter-anymore-you-know-europe-is-basically-a John J. Mearsheimer > Quotes]</ref> See also: [[Decline of Europe]]
+Due to [[Europe]]'s aging population which is projected to shrink and its various current and projected problems, Mearsheimer stated: “Europe doesn't matter anymore. You know, Europe is basically a giant museum.”<ref>[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10989704-europe-doesn-t-matter-anymore-you-know-europe-is-basically-a John J. Mearsheimer > Quotes]</ref>
 Mearsheimer said of the disastrous [[NATO_war_in_Ukraine#2023_Spring-Summer_counteroffensive|2023 Ukraine summer offensive]], "it should have been obvious to [[Ukraine]]’s [[Western civilization|Western]] cheerleaders beforehand that the [[blitzkrieg]] they embraced was doomed to fail and that it made little sense to push Ukraine to launch it."<ref>[https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/bound-to-lose Bound to Lose: Ukraine’s 2023 Counteroffensive], John Mearsheimer, Sept. 2, 2023</ref>
 Mearsheimer is in the [[Myrotvorets]] (English: Peacemaker) database, usually known as the [[Ukrainian Nazi]] kill list, which is an online database of what its owner, [[Anton Gerashchenko]], declares as “enemies of [[Ukraine]],” containing personal doxxing information and addresses.<ref>[https://mronline.org/2022/09/21/ukrainian-hit-list-publishes-names-and-addresses-of-alleged-russian-propagandists/ Ukrainian “Hit list” Publishes names and addresses of alleged “Russian propagandists:” Turns out to be based not in Ukraine but in Langley VA where CIA headquarters is located], By Jeremy Kuzmarov (Posted Sep 21, 2022). mronline.org</ref>  The kill list is maintained by Gerashchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament ([[Rada]]) and deputy minister of the Interior. Its servers are located in [[Brussels, Belgium]] and operated by [[NATO]] and the [[CIA]]. For enforcement of the kill list, the Ukrainian [[Teroborona]], [[SBU]], and Neo-Nazi [[Azov Battalion]] are organizations within the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, and not in the Ministry of Defense.
 ==Why Ukraine is [[the West]]'s fault==