Britain Has Chosen Escalation

Dmitriy Simes Calls on Russia to Strike British Underwater Cable

I have spent decades advising American presidents and studying the behavior of great powers under pressure. I say this not to establish credentials, but to explain why what I am about to write is not bluster. It is analysis. And the British government would do well to treat it as such.

The seizure of the Deyna tanker by French and British forces in the Mediterranean on March 20th was not a law enforcement action. It was an act of political aggression dressed in legal clothing. The legal foundations cited were assembled earlier this year — constructed, in other words, specifically for this purpose. When states manufacture legal rationales to justify what they have already decided to do, we should be honest about what that represents. It is not the rule of law. It is the weaponization of legal process.