Speculation is heating up in Brussels over this week’s attack on the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea. Many in the West suspect Russia to be behind the sabotage of the pipelines, but Moscow has denied any involvement, pointing the finger at the U.S. or Ukraine instead.
A massacre committed on Sept. 16 by Myanmar’s military, in which 11 children died, is consistent with the junta’s strategy to regain control of the country. The regime’s scorched-earth campaign is focusing on areas dominated by rebel units and those loyal to the opposition government in exile, the National Unity Government.
Alarm over a potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine has reawakened debate in the U.S. between those who favor continued military assistance to Kyiv and those who argue for seeking to end the war to head off the risks of escalation. At the root of the debate is a fundamental question: What’s at stake for the U.S. in Ukraine?
For anyone wondering how Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond to the Ukrainian military’s recent gains, this week offered a clarifying and horrifying answer. In a speech Wednesday, Putin announced a partial mobilization of Russia’s military reserves in an effort to shore up the Russian army’s collapsing front lines.
It is tempting to think that the liberal international order might have stood a better chance absent Russian revanchism and Chinese ambition. But to do so ignores the degree to which the globalization narrative disregarded globalization’s real impact on local communities. If the war in Ukraine represents a meaningful change, it is about reasserting the centrality of the state in globalization’s violent practices.
One of the most important exercises in any war is also one of the most difficult: assessing its progress. The war in Ukraine is no exception, but with the lightning gains of Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive having slowed somewhat, it seems like a good time to make a cautious attempt to take stock of where things stand.
A renewed round of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan marks an alarming escalation of tensions between the historical enemies since the end of their war in November 2020. The attack is closely related to recent shifts in the regional balance of power, which even before 2020 had already become lopsided in Baku’s favor.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, observers have been keeping a close eye on how much support China might lend its isolated partner. Though China has offered a much-needed diplomatic lifeline to Vladimir Putin in the face of Western efforts to make him a global pariah, Xi Jinping’s patience now seems to have worn thin.
The war in Ukraine took a dramatic turn last weekend when the Ukrainian military launched a massive counteroffensive, crystallizing what has been a gradual transformation of the war into a multilateral conflict between Russia and a Western coalition that has supplied arms, training and intelligence to Ukraine.
In August, the U.S. military announced a plan to reduce civilian casualties, embedding it as a concern at every level of preparation and operations. But the U.S. has always professed to take civilian casualties seriously, which raises the question of why it is now issuing a formal plan to do so and what changes might result from it.
The welcome Queen Elizabeth found on the island of Ireland in the final years of her life and the sympathy expressed there after her death should give London food for thought. Confrontation over Brexit’s implications for Northern Ireland risks undermining decades of work to build better relations between Britain and Ireland.
The IAEA has found itself in the thick of two global political crises—securing a Ukrainian nuclear power plant and enforcing oversight of Iran’s nuclear program. Its chief, Rafael Grossi, has managed both files with dexterity, but his ongoing success will depend on his ability to avoid alienating any of the parties involved.
In the aftermath of Mikhail Gorbachev’s death last week, many observers wondered if another Gorbachev-like figure could reverse Russia’s course after President Vladimir Putin leaves power, like Gorbachev did for the Soviet Union. But that’s unlikely. And the image of Gorbachev that guides such hopes is less than accurate.
Yemen’s latest truce extension was reached with difficulty, in part because the Houthis no longer feel they have any incentive to make further concessions. With the clock already running down on the two-month extension, the group’s lack of meaningful engagement poses a serious threat to the prospects for reaching a lasting peace.
Many Americans were reminded last week that the United States remains actively engaged in military combat. But this conflict is not in Afghanistan, where the U.S. withdrew its forces last August. Nor is it in Ukraine, where President Joe Biden has gone out of his way to avoid direct military involvement. It’s in Syria.
European Union bureaucrats are busy figuring out how to implement the agreement reached this week in Prague by EU foreign ministers to end visa facilitation for Russian tourists visiting the union. But many of the bloc’s members fear that the policy could strengthen Putin’s hand and hurt ethnic Russians living in the union.