This post is the first in Allie’s ongoing Badass Lessons for Modern Leaders series, which seeks to [somewhat] jokingly tease out how to be feared and admired.
As Putin’s recent aggressive nuclear rhetoric flies across the Atlantic Ocean, the idea of the nuclear deterrent is back in the news. This concept, while an uneasy backdrop to American life from 1945 to the present, largely faded from public discussion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In fact, as President Obama undertook his reset with Russia and the New START treaty was signed, many nuke-watchers, myself included, thought we stood on the cusp of unprecedented nuclear disarmament.
No more. With Putin’s aggression in Crimea, the idea of significant nuclear cuts beyond New START is no longer geopolitically feasible. However, I would like to take this moment to urge U.S. leaders to take a page out of Russian history and develop an altogether different sort of deterrent. A deterrent that starts with the sort of vengeful creativity that only comes from the mind of a woman scorned.
This is a true story. Or, at least, as true as one can get when there’s only one primary source available for the period. Readers should bear in mind three things: one, I have punched up the Primary Chronicle’s original dialogue for the benefit of the modern reader, two, Princess Olga is my actual hero, and three, this would be the greatest episode of Drunk History ever. Anyway: Continue reading
I Bought My Adulthood 