Ukraine
Germany
Germany removes key debt brake budget limits in historic move
Rushing to arrive at a workable arrangement before the new post-election German parliament convened on March 25, Friedrich Merz’s victorious CDU/CSU bloc and the...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Weaning Europe off its Russian gas addiction
The Viking hero Ragnar Lodbrok once said “don't waste your time looking back. You're not going that way.” The words of the former king...
Yemen
Washington targets Houthi leaders for terrorism, Russia ties and weapons procurement
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, there is no ambivalence in Washington regarding the Houthis. Handling all of the statutory requirements required to press the...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Tashkent’s busy diplomatic agenda
In the coming months, Uzbekistan will host high-profile summits between Central Asia with the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council. As global geopolitics...
Invasion of Ukraine
EU leaders in Kyiv back Ukraine, but Trump won’t blame Russia
On the three-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European leaders travelled to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and to declare their...
Invasion of Ukraine
The dance begins: Rubio and Lavrov engage (alone) on Ukraine
Clearly working overtime to move the U.S.-Russia peace effort for Ukraine forward, both countries’ foreign ministers met on February 18 in Riyadh for the...
Economy & Business
Global reaction to Trump tariffs only reinforces his use of this tired and risky strategy
True to form, U.S. President Donald Trump disrupted global markets with a three-day surge of tariff announcements, border security negotiations and ultimately a 30-day...
Columns
EU searches for alternatives before Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine stops
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly stated that it will not extend a transit agreement, which has provided political, commercial, technical and legal grounds for...
Russia Sanctions
U.S. sanctions Russian banks, finance officials and securities registrars
The U.S. announced on November 21 new sanctions targeting Russia’s largest remaining non-designated bank (Gazprombank), as well as dozens of other financial institutions and...
Defense & Security
Allies condemn the DPRK’s deployment of troops to Russia
The G7 countries, the EU as well as Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand on November 6 expressed "grave concern" over the deployment of...
Energy
EU-GCC to expand cooperation on green energy, minerals, and bringing peace to Ukraine
The EU heads of state and government and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held their first summit on October 16 in Brussels under the...
China
Drone producers in China and Russia face new U.S. sanctions
In recent months, the Biden administration’s sanctions taskmasters at the State and Treasury Departments have clearly gone into overdrive, designating new targets/entities at least...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The complex politics of Caspian gas
For the countries bordering the Caspian Sea, gas has always been a major economic resource and, in most cases, one of the biggest contributors...
Zero Tolerance
UNGA 2024 overshadowed by Middle East turmoil
At the end of September, as usual, most of the world’s leaders converge on New York for the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) session...
Oil & Gas
Hungary, Slovakia sweetheart deal with Brussels keeps the Russian oil flowing through Ukraine
The energy crisis that has been caused by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine continued after Kyiv imposed in late June of this year a...
Defense & Security
NATO Summit: “Trump-proofing” Ukraine support while Biden appearances under a microscope
The July 9-11 NATO Summit was originally envisioned as a celebration of the alliance’s 75th anniversary at the organization’s founding venue in Washington D.C.,...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Jeffrey Sachs: three times a traitor
An economist with an international reputation, Professor Jeffrey Sachs has increasingly raised his profile in the world media. A U.S. citizen, he accuses his...
Invasion of Ukraine
G7 Summit focuses on Ukraine support and shattering Russia’s wartime economy
Despite last week’s expert punditry (itself almost indistinguishable from AI) on the latest G7 decisions as exhibited by the “instant experts” on global issues...
Disasters and Reconstruction Initiatives
Berlin Ukraine Recovery Conference
Although partially overshadowed by urgent Ukrainian requests for emergency help with its immediate air defense needs, as well as political shockwaves emanating from the...
Russia Sanctions
New wave of U.S. sanctions target Russia’s foreign suppliers and industrial base
On May 1, the U.S. Department of State together with the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a wide-ranging new list of anti-Russia sanctions covering an...
Disasters and Reconstruction Initiatives
U.S.-Ukraine Partnership Forum focuses on engaging the private sector in Ukraine’s Recovery
On April 17, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and USAID, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted...
The Negroni Diaries
With Sweden now a NATO member, what’s next?
Sweden completed the necessary diplomatic formalities on March 7, depositing its instrument of accession with the U.S. State Department in Washington, which manages the...
EU Institutions
EU strives to boost ability to detect and prepare for cyber threats
The Belgian Presidency of the European Council on March 6 informally agreed on the Cyber Solidarity Act (CSoA), aiming to build a more resilient,...
Democracy & Human Rights
U.S. joins International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children
On March 7, the office of the spokesperson at the U.S. Department of State issued a media note, clearly meant to be circulated in...
Russia Sanctions
Russia sanctions remain a powerful tool to support Ukraine’s defense
Western leaders should not dismiss the two-year long sanctions campaign (as opposed to the 2014 Crimea sanctions) as unsuccessful simply because the Kremlin has...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Moldova’s 2024 elections: Why it matters
Since the war in Ukraine commenced, the neighboring Republic of Moldova, led by President Maia Sandu, has strongly supported Kyiv. As the tiny, landlocked...
Invasion of Ukraine
Canada and aiding the democratic cause in Ukraine
Though the funding of Ukraine’s war against Russia remains the main topic of the American Congress, Ukraine’s relationship with its other key Western partners,...
Ukraine
Ukraine’s persecuted mayor
Lest it be forgotten, the major thematic issue in post-Maidan and pre-war Ukraine was, and continues to be, the transformation of Ukrainian society along...
Armenia
Russia’s powerful economic levers over Armenia
Armenia's relations with its strategic partner Russia are getting worse and worse and its leaders seem to desire a shift in geopolitical orientation towards the West....
Economy & Business
Rebuilding Ukraine: Opportunities and concerns for foreign businesses
Such is the scale of the effort required to rebuild Ukraine that the World Bank in March 2023 estimated it at $411 billion. That...
Democracy & Human Rights
On confronting evil in the modern world
Now is an appropriate time to morally clarify the underlying narrative of what is happening in Israel and Ukraine.
Survivors of the last century’s greatest...
Invasion of Ukraine
It takes time to defeat a dictatorship
Whether it is acknowledged or not, Ukraine and the West are in the process of learning a very hard but essential lesson about the...
Disasters and Reconstruction Initiatives
US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery announced
President Joe Biden announced on September 14 the appointment of Penny Pritzker as the US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery.In this role, she...
Zero Tolerance
Zelensky Athens visit eclipses Mitsotakis’ informal Western Balkans Summit
Receiving a full house of Western Balkan leaders, as well as several EU luminaries, in Athens on an evening when much of northern Greece...
Agriculture & Food Security
Possible new solutions to Ukraine’s grain export challenge emerge
In view of the collapse of the UN’s Black Sea Grain Initiative in July at Russia’s insistence, work is proceeding in multiple sectors to...
The Negroni Diaries
Strange goings on in Northern Greece seem to worry Ankara
Government-linked Turkish media have indicated concern about a series of visits and events in Greece’s Evros prefecture -- the Greek-Turkish border region -- which...
Defense & Security
White House support for F-16s to Ukraine is a major momentum shift in the 18-month war
After months of waffling and amid increasingly desperate pleas from Kyiv, the White House has signaled to European allies in recent weeks that the...
Defense & Security
When it comes to defense, the politicians must listen to those who know best – the generals
The halls of power are walked by people who know little, care even less and yet have the right to supersede and ignore the advice of those who know better.
Europe & Eurasia
Putin’s New START withdrawal has broad implications
Vladimir Putin continues to persuade Russians that the West provoked his imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine. His announcement that he would no longer...
Defense & Security
Providing Ukraine with advanced Western fighters is a logical step towards battlefield success
While Ukraine may have weathered the storm of Russia’s initial onslaught and retaliated with a force and determination largely thought to have been beyond...
Invasion of Ukraine
What a difference one year makes
Ukraine’s steadfastness has shown Putin's dreams of a post-Soviet Russian Empire are pure fiction.
Columns
Could this be the end of the Chekist renaissance?
Russia's once all-powerful successor to the KGB - the FSB - is watching its status crumble after major military defeats in Ukraine.
Columns
Putin threatens global security with renewed nuclear saber rattling
Putin's maniacal compulsion to start a nuclear war is not just a sinister ultimatum to world peace, it is simply mad.
Invasion of Ukraine
Pentagon’s reported change on targeting could result in a more costly, earlier defeat for Moscow
The idea that a country which Russians have been told could never put up effective resistance is actually winning, dragging their country into a grim battle of attrition, will do more to make Russian people doubt their leadership than any inhumane rocket attack against their cities.
Europe & Eurasia
Poland is going its own way
The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, continues to attack Germany, the main focus of his ire in Europe. Kaczynski...
Albania
EU Tirana Summit: Enlargement must go on
The summit's generic one size fits all “membership perspective” statement was seen as good news by most after the topic of EU Enlargement had become a highly controversial subject.
Newsletter
One rule for life & what maps mean: Keep Jordan Peterson away from Ukraine
For Peterson to refer to Russia's invasion as an ‘incursion’ is nothing more than insulting. The word does not make allowances for the wholesale destruction of cities, the occupation of territory and the murder of the inhabitants.
Invasion of Ukraine
Contemplating evil in Ukraine
According to the Geneva Conventions, Russia is perpetrating genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Invasion of Ukraine
Mykolaiv’s fight with collaborators saves lives and wrecks Russia’s plans in the south
Oleksy Vadatursky and his wife Raisa, one of the wealthiest couples in the Mykolaiv region, were killed in a Russian missile strike this summer....
Arts & Culture
For the Eurovision, Turin and Piedmont shows their vocation for hospitality on many levels
Music brings people together, even in the most challenging times. The Eurovision Song contest, one of the most important international songwriting competitions globally, is...
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