... post-World War II era and the post-Cold War era. Grounded in international institutions including the UN, the IMF, and chiefly NATO, it claimed to promote prosperity, global peace and economic cooperation; however, it has perpetually reflected US strategic ... ... governance. A gradual decline in US supremacy, rise in nationalistic politics, and the increasingly weary Global South perceptions of western “global” norms have paved way for a seismic shift in global governance: multiple axes of power now have their own ...
... deploy conventional weapons against any adversary. However, the Ukraine conflict has demonstrated that missile strikes, aviation assets, artillery systems and similar capabilities—while inflicting damage—fail to critically undermine enemy resilience. NATO possesses damage mitigation capabilities identical to those of Ukraine, merely on an exponentially greater scale. Unlike Ukraine, Western countries currently demonstrate reduced psychological tolerance for human casualties. That said, concerted political mobilisation and strategic propaganda could recalibrate societal sensitivity to losses and acceptance of wartime sacrifices. The ...
On April 8, 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), together with the Institute of World Politics and Economics (IWPE, Serbia), held a roundtable on “The Balkan Region in the Eurasian Security System.”
On April 8, 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), together with the Institute of World Politics and Economics (IWPE, Serbia), held a roundtable on “The Balkan Region in the Eurasian Security System.” The event took place in a hybrid format and brought together representatives...
... not-so-successful conclusion of the US’ own 20-year military presence in Afghanistan. It also incentivized the community of Western nations to unite once again under the US leadership, disciplining previously not-always compliant European and Asian allies.... ... significantly stronger than it was some four or five years ago, when French President Emmanuel Macron allowed himself to describe NATO as a brain-dead alliance.
After the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, NATO quite unexpectedly acquired two new ...
... possible use of tactical nuclear weapons at some stage of the current conflict.
However, like it was the case during the Cold War, current division of Europe does not mean that there are no common or overlapping interests pursued by the East and the West, by Russia and NATO, or Russia and the European Union. The most evident convergence of interests is in reducing risks of an uncontrolled escalation and the likely costs of the continuous political and military confrontation. In other words, both sides need, firstly,...
... deeper strategic partnership
[11]
. While Chinese diplomats in Europe tend to talk about complex nature of the Ukrainian crisis and while speaking of the record they can even criticize Russia
[12]
, their colleagues working in Russia directly blame NATO for the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis
[13]
. Such Chinese position allows China to continue playing the role of a potential mediator or peacemaker in the conflict and at the same time leads to repeated calls coming from some Western leaders
to step up pressure on Russia
[14]
.
The development of bilateral partnership during the Ukraine crisis
While in the diplomatic arena China was treading carefully and avoided taking sides, China’s real-world activities in relations ...
... bring together both NATO countries and those which did not belong to the alliance, including Russia, into a single community. But since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been a process of politicisation of the OSCE in favour of the interests of Western countries. Russia has increasingly viewed NATO expansion as a security threat. Instruments such as the Russia-NATO Council were unable to absorb the growing contradictions. The lack of effective and equal institutions that would take into account the interests of Russia and integrate it into ...
... April 3-4, effectively shifted the burden of funding Ukraine from the U.S. to European countries. The ministerial also discussed the issues of defense spending and decision-making, which have been complicated by the accession of Finland and Sweden, and NATO’s further enlargement, primarily in the Western Balkans.
Dmitry Danilov, Head of the Department of European Security at the RAS Institute of Europe and MGIMO University Professor, noted that NATO was currently at a crossroads, with little clarity on how to organize the anniversary summit in ...
... Unfortunately, it turned out that the two sides had very different perceptions about very fundamental dimensions of international security and global governance.
In the West, they assumed that the future international system should have at its core primarily Western institutions—like NATO and the European Union—that would gradually expand and absorb former socialist nations of Central and Eastern Europe. The assumption was that the West would define the rules of the game within the new system, while the Rest would have to accept ...
... most of humanity. Those of us who remember have only to recall how NATO, instead of disbanding, ignored Russia’s concerns and attempts at serious dialogue, expanded, and then illegally bombed Belgrade, ignoring the UN. That was not enough, as the West then destroyed Iraq (lying, into the bargain) and Libya, and tried to destroy Syria. Russia kept warning NATO to stop, but the latter had, and still has, no reverse gear, controlled as it is by enormous financial interests.
Greed was, and is, the order of the day. Russia’s attempts to move closer to, and even join, NATO, were cynically rebuffed, just as ...
