October 1st began what could be one of the more interesting Chairships of the United Nations Security Council, with Russia taking over and being charged with a rather delicate balancing act: between conducting the numerous affairs expected to be covered by any standard Chair of the UNSC and deftly handling the ‘special’ relationship with the United States that has recently become woefully deficient. Even more intriguing, some of the most vivid recent examples of that degrading relationship...
Whether one truly believes in the old adage that the President of the United States is the ‘leader of the free world’ and ‘the most powerful person on the global stage,’ it is unquestionable that whoever holds the Oval Office in the White House wields tremendous influence and impact far beyond the borders of America. As the world looks on with fascination in 2016 at the coming confrontation between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, questions remain as to which candidate is...
The Yemeni Civil War is probably not the most talked about conflict in western media, with all the attention attracted by the unfortunately well-known atrocities committed by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Nevertheless, the bloodshed has reached sizable proportions with estimated 6000 dead since March 2015 and it cannot absolutely be underestimated for the gravity and magnitude of geopolitical effects it carries on the the Middle East and the rest of the world.
The war broke out as a confrontation...
Question:
The migration crisis in the EU has become Europe’s main problem overshadowing even the problems of Greece and the Ukraine crisis, which has been a constant talking point over the past year and a half. What is your take on the causes of and possibilities for resolving this problem?
Answer:
For the EU, this is indeed a complicated situation, but it did not come as much of a surprise.
Over the past two decades, the EU has been implementing two major, serious and complicated projects...
Working paper 24/2015
The events in Ukraine in 2013-2014 did not reveal any new, deep-rooted contradictions between Kiev and Moscow; they had existed long before, albeit not so acutely.
They have, however, triggered the fiercest confrontation between the two biggest countries in the post-Soviet space, which has raised numerous questions regarding the future of Russian-Ukrainian relations, along with exposing a whole range of serious problems within the entire international security system.
The...
... relations between the West and Russia.
While the spark that lit the fire in Cuba had been shot by the USSR’s attempt to install nuclear missiles right in front of the coast of the USA, this time around the roles are reversed. Indeed, although in international relations there are hardly ever any instances where both parties involved don't share at least a small portion of the responsibility for a crisis – and arguably that also applies to the case at hand – the United States ...
Media outlets and government circles both cringe and squirm when the subject of Westerners leaving the West to go fight in Syria and Iraq with the Islamic State arises. While acquiring data and calculating accurate numbers wildly diverges from source to source, there is no doubt that ANY number simply makes countries like the United States uncomfortable and perplexed: in short, how could anyone want to leave the land of the free, the tolerant, the open, the just and go fight for a group that represents...
.... and beyond, despite cringing slightly when reading the term “the West”, as if several countries with hundreds of cultures and languages can be defined as a single entity, with similar interpretations of geopolitics, let alone effective international relations.
However, U.S. foreign diplomacy appears lost at sea, undirected by bi-partisan purpose and expertise, as demonstrated by post-Cold War America’s reliance on unilateralism, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the ongoing ...
... the point. At least it will guard against overly politicizing the issues, which is harming our countries and the world.
Another important point: I believe that it is vital to separate the
discourse
about Russia's political agenda with the problems of international relations. Such discourse is needed. Likewise a consultation on the changes that have taken place in U.S. domestic politics is needed. A tasty appetizer was served recently by
Mikhail Gorbachev
, who called for perestroika in the United ...
It is perhaps a misnomer to discuss future ‘blowback:’ there have been groups actively pursuing technological attacks on American targets simultaneously alongside the development of the U.S. drone fleet. Keep in mind blowback comes in forms other than just anger over actual attacks. There is growing dissent across the Middle East at what is perceived to be a total lack of transparency and scrutiny by the American public over its government’s use of drones. This concern was growing...
