A year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Zeitenwende speech, progress has been made in remaking Germany’s defense strategy on multiple fronts. But the lingering concern is whether Scholz has the political capital—and courage—to break away from the structural incentives that have guided Germany’s security posture since reunification.
Part of what enabled Ukraine to win the public diplomacy war following Russia’s invasion was its obvious adherence to the Geneva Conventions in the face of an aggressive onslaught. But as the war dragged on and Russian atrocities piled up, Ukraine has taken other actions that risk chipping away at its hard-won moral high ground.
Latin America’s broad support for last week’s U.N. resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and a withdrawal of Russian forces was a clear stand in favor of Ukraine’s sovereignty. But if the U.N. vote was cause for celebration, it was also a rare condemnation on regional leaders’ part of Russia’s actions.
Over the past year, the implications of the war in Ukraine have been the subject of much analysis and debate. It has been a war between two armed forces, but also between two diametrically opposed systems of values. It has been an economic war and a war of competing narratives. But above all, it has been a war of contradictions.
In his State of the Nation address Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated familiar themes of his propaganda narrative on the war in Ukraine, from protecting Russia from Western cultural “degeneration” to fighting “neo-Nazis” in Kyiv. But propaganda only works if audiences want to believe in what is being promoted.
Today marks one year since Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, causing massive military casualties on both sides and widespread destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure. Sadly, the need to discuss this war as a current event will probably not end this year or the next. Rather, the war is likely to last for years to come.
Capitals in Europe are observing a grim anniversary this week. Tomorrow marks one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed the continent overnight into a new reality. With no end to the war in sight, the big discussion in European capitals now is how to sustain Ukraine’s war effort over the long haul.
This week, with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaching, major players on the global stage took the opportunity to articulate their view of Europe’s first interstate war since World War II, as well as how they want their role in the epicenter of the world’s principal geopolitical conflict to be perceived.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a mixed record in delivering reforms after his 2019 election. Sistema—what Ukrainians call the country’s informal rules of governance that are notoriously resistant to change—was simply part of normal Ukrainian politics. But normal politics in Ukraine ended with the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Strategic debates in the EU are currently focused on sustaining the trans-Atlantic alliance to contain Russian aggression, while searching for an approach to China that balances deterrence and engagement. Yet in its preoccupation with Russia and China, the EU is not paying enough attention to India’s emergence as a global power.
As search and rescue operations in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria wind down, there has been widespread criticism of the Turkish state’s response. Nevertheless, for all the shortcomings in the government’s response to the earthquakes, it is miles ahead of how the Syrian state responded.
The recent anti-government protests in Peru haven’t happened in a vacuum. Rather they are the product of decades of misrule and corruption, as well as the legacy of the country’s civil conflict, which have combined to leave rural Peruvians disenfranchised, marginalized and forgotten by Lima’s political establishment.
The U.N. General Assembly will vote this week on a resolution marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calling on Moscow to end the war. While the resolution is unlikely to affect Russia’s actions, it will allow Ukraine to demonstrate that it still enjoys broad international support for its struggle.
This weekend’s African Union leaders’ summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will be Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari final one ahead of his departure from office in May. Haunting Buhari’s final AU summit, and his last months in office, is a grim reality: Nigeria’s continued decline as a continental power.
As Vladimir Putin cracked down on dissent following the invasion of Ukraine, Russians opposed to the war started leaving the country in large numbers. The departure of hundreds of thousands of people as the direct result of the war will have a powerful impact on the country in two distinct ways: It will help Putin and hurt Russia.
The importance of civil defense capabilities, so often neglected during quieter times, has become starkly visible in Turkey and Syria in the past two weeks. When confronted with war or natural disasters, a society can only protect survivors if it has the state capacity to organize an effective civil defense effort.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos recently announced that Manila will implement a defense agreement signed with the U.S. in 2014 and grant U.S. forces access to additional military bases. After six years of acrimonious relations, the Philippines is poised once again to play a pivotal role in Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy.