Le Monde journalist Sylvie Kauffmann will participate in Journalism and Crisis (April 15–17), a series facilitating discussions about some of the most critical questions facing journalists and journalism today, particularly in an international context.
On April 16, Kauffmann will participate in a panel on “Ethical Responsibilities and Personal Risk” in journalism, moderated by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times columnist and vice chair of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists. On April 15, Kauffmann will present her book Les aveuglés (Stock, 2023), “The Blindsided,” in conversation with Columbia Journalism professor Alexander Stille.
Read a preview of the book and the discussion to come.
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Did Europe pave the way for Putin?
On 24th February 2022 the world fell apart: Putin invaded Ukraine and pulverised stability in Europe. Three decades earlier, everyone was convinced that the end of the Cold War heralded a new era typified by the triumph of liberal democracy. But over the years, Vladimir Putin’s Russia in the East was growing increasingly aggressive; young democracies in central Europe fell into the trap of populism; while in the West, Donald Trump abused American democracy and threatened international order.
Why did we get it so badly wrong? What warning signs did we ignore?
Using the testimony of key players from pivotal episodes over the last twenty years, this book highlights why we failed to notice the realities of Putin’s Russia: withdrawal by America; blindness in a Germany trapped by its own history; a contempt for new democracies in eastern Europe; and the obsolete russophilia among some of the French elite, including – importantly – Sarkozy and Macron, who were incentivised by unrealistic visions of a robust security structure between Europe and Moscow. Exactly when should we have taken a different route? Was there even one to take? Will Europe emerge weakened or strengthened by this war that has opened the continent’s eyes?
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Sylvie Kauffmann is a journalist at Le Monde, where she writes a weekly geopolitical column. She has been an international correspondent in Moscow, central Europe, the United States and Asia. She has also been a contributor to the New York Times and regularly writes in the “Opinion” pages of the Financial Times.
