Hello CCI followers,
You may know that the late Stephen F. Cohen influenced generations of young academics and journalists who shared his concerns regarding the dangers of a new cold war with Russia and the mainstream media’s refusal to meaningfully challenge the narrative set by Washington’s bipartisan foreign policy elites.
Shortly after Cohen’s demise last September, three of his younger admirers and friends came together to form a new media outlet on Substack called The Scrum, which is dedicated to Steve. I have been a subscriber since the beginning and love their insightful pieces! So I asked The Scrum founding editor, James Carden, about the new site and what he and his colleagues hope to achieve with it:
Can you tell me what distinctive role you are aiming for in the world of so many different types of journalism?
Yes. The Scrum is a project by three writers (Patrick Lawrence, Marshall Auerback and myself) who have come together to analyze current events without any interest in playing to the prejudices or preconceptions of the Left or the Right. Simply put, we look at foreign and domestic issues and ask: what policies advance the common good, here and abroad? Do wars, illegal interventions, cold wars, sanctions, bellicose rhetoric and enormous defense budgets promote peace and global stability or do they not? We believe they do not and we take a deeply critical eye toward all those aspects, regardless of who is in charge.
What perspective do you hope to leave with readers?
One of the things I do when I am writing a story is to ask myself what Steve Cohen would have thought; his approach to foreign affairs was to champion diplomacy, to wage peace not war, to talk to and try to understand our adversaries and those different from us. In short, to try and use empathy and our common humanity to get to common solutions. At The Scrum you will never see us demonize a world leader or cast aspersions on an entire population because they have cultures and systems different from us. We believe in pluralism at home and abroad.
The Scrum is one of a small number of responsible and independent news sources available today. I urge you to check out TheScrum.Substack.com. If you are interested, sign up for a 30 day subscription.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
The Scrum Founding editors and writers
MARSHALL AUERBACK is a Research Associate for the Levy Institute at Bard College, a writer for the Independent Media Institute, and a contributor to American Compass, a newly established think tank formed to restore an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity.
JAMES W. CARDEN served as an adviser to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Commission during the Obama administration and worked closely with Secretary Clinton’s Special Representative for Intergovernmental Affairs on Russia initiatives. A contributing writer for foreign affairs at The Nation magazine, his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Quartz, American Affairs, The American Conservative, and The National Interest. He is executive editor for the American Committee for East-West Accord. He currently serves on the Board of the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to furthering international dialogue.
PATRICK LAWRENCE is a commentator, author, essayist, and lecturer. He served as a correspondent and subsequently a columnist overseas for more than twenty years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune and The New Yorker. He has won two Overseas Press Club Awards as well as other honors and prizes. His reportage, commentary, essays, criticism, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The Nation, The New York Times, Business Week, TIME, The Washington Quarterly, World Policy Journal, The Globalist, Salon, and CounterPunch. Lawrence currently writes a column for Consortium News; his essays appear in Raritan, the quarterly journal of literature, politics, and culture. Lawrence serves as associate editor for publications at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century (Yale). His sixth, The Journalist and His Shadow, is due out in Spring 2021.