INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY AS JUNIOR HIGH:

RUSSIA’S sense of self-esteem has long been inseparable from its relationship with America. To have America as an enemy during the Cold War gave the Soviet Union a sense of urgency and of purpose: America took Russia seriously!

The end of the cold war deprived Russia briefly of a vital adversary. It is only logical now that, as Russia tries to reassert itself on the world stage, and restore its sense of greatness, it is returning to the sort of sparring with America that it found—perversely—so comforting before.

No television chat show in Russia passes without a bout of America-bashing. Russia does not mind being resented by America. What it does mind is being ignored.

Can we set up a sort of Potemkin foreign-policy to meet the apparently inexhaustible worldwide need to be taken seriously? Kind of like a global self-esteem camp? I thought that was what the U.N. was for. . . .