January is typically the month of new beginnings. However, the first portion of 2017 has offered everything but a break from the tumultuous wreckage seen in the past year. This past week the U.S. intelligence community released its first public assessment of Russian interference in the US elections.
The results of this assessment leave the United States and Western nations with a choice on how they will respond to Russian actions designed to disrupt and undermine the integrity of democratic political systems.