Hey folks! I’m going to be in NYC on Thursday and wanted to invite you all to a low-key Slow Boring hangout at Bull McCabe’s on Saint Mark’s Place. Nothing formal or fancy, just show up and have a drink or two and chat and meet some folks. I’m gonna get there at 5 p.m. and hang out for a few hours. So to repeat:

Bull McCabe’s, 29 St Mark’s Place, 5 p.m., Thursday, March 10.

Come say hi! Now on to the post.

What is Vladimir Putin doing? A lot of people have answers.

One line of thought (prominently associated with John Mearsheimer) is that Russia’s approach to Ukraine is grounded in more-or-less rational security concerns about NATO expansion. I was initially inclined to agree with Mearsheimer. As I said back on March 1, expanding NATO never struck me as a very good idea. I was not a big fan of the decision to get aggressively involved in the Euromaidan protests and favored a relatively conciliatory response to Russia’s seizure of Crimea and meddling in the Donbas region. But Mearsheime…