The first postmodern political assassination

In a Turkish assassination, the West sees its frightening future

The gunman.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Image courtesy AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

2016 is not finished with us yet.

Compounding regional and global fears of a lurch toward wider war, Mevlut Mert Altintas, an Ankara policeman, assassinated Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, in a stunning attack on Monday. With U.S.-Russian tensions already spiking amidst election-hacking allegations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime more authoritarian than ever following this summer's failed coup, and the calamitous consequences of Aleppo and Mosul playing out in real time, this assassination is horrifying and worrisome.

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James Poulos

James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.