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SUBMITTED: WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE [PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE, NO CLEARANCE REQ.]
Opinion: WHAT MORITZ SATOW’S KIDNAPPING MEANS FOR AMERICA
This week, the kidnapping of German scientist Moritz Satow by Soviet intelligence forces was reported by US media, including
our paper of record. Yet the editorial board at the New York Times stopped short of recommending a course of action for a government that has become increasingly complacent and dangerously
passive.
Satow’s kidnapping represents a bold escalation on the part of the Soviets and a flagrant violation of the norms that have,
thus far, prevented all-out war. As the world changes, these norms change as well, and if Russia succeeds in shifting the
boundaries of acceptable action, then it is imperative for the United States to meet this challenge.
The balance of power that staves off nuclear conflict is not a static one. It evolves with time, with technology, and indeed
even with sociopolitical developments that the academicians are so reticent to call “soft power.” More than what Satow’s kidnapping
will mean for the war effort in practice is what it communicates symbolically: that the Soviets are willing to act boldly
and in defiance of the current status quo.
While proxy wars and economic sanctions have been established as acceptable behavior from state actors within this anarchic system, the kidnapping of a civilian is not among such accepted actions—at least not a kidnapping so brazen and public.
It is clear that, with this act, the Soviets seek to reshape the state of the conflict, and with it, the state of the world.
The United States must respond with action of its own, or risk the erosion of its legitimacy in the eyes of both its allies and its enemies.
That the German government’s response has been tepid and NATO has ordered caution makes it all the more essential for America to be the standard-bearer of the West’s counterreaction.
If America does not play a role in shaping the new world order, then it will find itself without a place within it.
Dorian Jones is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, and the author of 39 books on international relations
and nuclear deterrence and proliferation. He has served as an adviser to numerous presidents and multinational corporations,
and is currently the chairman of the Council on American Defense and Emerging Technologies.