海角大神

Sometime not too long ago, I embarked on a mission to find the most diverse country on earth. Unfortunately, the question is sufficiently complicated that Google offered no definitive answer, so that meant research. Eventually, that brought me to Russia. Let鈥檚 just say, I was dumbstruck.

Surely, had I interviewed our Fred Weir, author of this week鈥檚 cover story, he would have patted me on the head and said in a very patient voice, 鈥淵es, Mark, Russia is very diverse.鈥� But I don鈥檛 think I would have understood the full scope. Russia is not even a country, really. It鈥檚 a Swiss cheese federation of so many cultural and linguistic groups 鈥� spread so widely over such an unfathomable expanse 鈥� that it鈥檚 something of a miracle the thing exists and functions at all.

And that is the point of this week鈥檚 cover story. It鈥檚 also a lesson for the world 鈥� the United States included. 聽

In one sense, the Russia of today really shouldn鈥檛 be a single country. It鈥檚 too big, too diverse, too difficult to govern. The centrifugal forces within it are always threatening dissolution. Things were even worse in the Soviet Union 鈥� so much so, that those forces eventually prevailed. Today, they still stalk Russia as existential doubts.聽

So what do you do? Dissolve again? Not only might that once more unleash the rampant geopolitical uncertainty that destroyed the Russian economy in the 1990s, but it would also mortally wound a proud nation that built a聽centuries-old inland empire of historic extent. Not likely.聽

So what has Russia done? That is what Fred explores. It has muddled through, seeking to avoid further collapse through economic growth and stern (and often anti-democratic) resolve. Former Soviet countries that have sought to leave its orbit have been systematically undermined.

Yet the challenge Russia faces is the same challenge facing every diverse nation on earth. Two years ago, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to unite his diverse, fractious nation. Now, he has launched a brutal war against a separatist region. As Russia will tell you, this is not easy.

In many ways, America鈥檚 diversity is different. The vast majority of Americans are transplanted from elsewhere, by choice or force. In Russia and Ethiopia, diversity involves cultural and tribal identities centuries if not millennia old. Yet the underlying point is the same 鈥� diversity is hard, and the easiest political solution is often violence and anti-democratic rule.

Russia, Fred suggests, might finally be learning some lessons, if slowly. Perhaps it doesn鈥檛 need to rule the region with an iron fist. Its actions during a recent war between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan hint that ideals of respect, forbearance, and rule of law are at least percolating. Could Russia survive if it relied only on the common purpose of those higher ideals? We aren鈥檛 likely to get an answer anytime soon. Yet in struggling mightily with that question every day, America鈥檚 greatest gift to the world is the hope that the answer could someday be yes.