FEATURED BLOG POSTS
Now that Crimea is firmly in the Russian column, it is to be hoped that the Kremlin will provide both peoples with as much local autonomy as possible in line with earlier pledges.
If you ask me, Obama's action on Cuba was a master stroke, and full of foresight. He has undercut Putin's ability to use Cuba as a pressure point against the U.S. going forward and has, in a single action, transformed a net negative for the U.S. and Cuba into a net positive for its government, people, and businesses.
As a fervent food-lover, I am wildly envious of a long-time friend of mine named Jim Miller. If you knew Jim as I do...you would know that he settles only for the finest of everything. And just when he thinks he's found what he was looking for, he searches further for a step above that.
A Russian threat to Bosnia-Hercegovina could mean a rupture of delicate interreligious relations maintained in the country since Dayton. Bosnia is still divided between a "Republic of Serbs" and the "Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina," with the latter comprising Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.
As it happened, Ali Khamenei, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan were all walking in one of the UN's corridors.
The scent of nationalism was present in the former-Yugoslavia before Vladimir Putin effectively assumed power in Moscow. Already during the early stages of the conflict in Bosnia & Herzegovina, "BiH" solutions were being fashioned in the hope of, well appeasing is perhaps an appropriate term, those leaders in the region but also Moscow who saw feudal nationalism as the vehicle to replace authoritarian communism.
"Putin feels deeply aggrieved by Western actions, and he reacts in a manner that Peter the Great would have understood. It's brutal. But I do not think we face the same phenomenon as the Cold War."
As an American Jewish and an American Muslim leader dedicated to the principle that Muslims and Jews should stand up for each other whenever the rights of members of either community are violated anywhere in the world, we are speaking out together against the ever-intensifying campaign of intimidation against the Crimean Tatars.
This election represents the next step in Ukraine's journey toward a new politics. At least it might.
When the Soviet Union collapsed more than two decades ago, and Ukraine opted for independence, many expected the country to do better than Russia in the years to come. But events turned out differently.
Investing in domestic water security has obvious benefits, from national security of critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks to mitigating the ongoing drought in California.
Russia now owns Crimea and rebel forces in eastern Ukraine are trying to take over that part of Ukraine. This is all being done without any help from Vladimir Putin. If anyone has any doubts about that they were put to bed by a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Alexander Lukashevich.
After a popular uprising toppled Viktor Yanukovych in February, Ukrainians touring his most lavish palace finally got to visit their ex-president's private zoo. In this sprawling compound just outside Kyiv, built with stolen tax payer money, there are over 2,000 animals.
Germany's position as Europe's leading economic and political power put Chancellor Merkel in an awkward position vis-a-vis how to address Vladimir Putin's extra-territorial activities.
Despite many pressures on the body to take some sort of decisive action to counter the Russian threat to Ukraine -- beyond sanctions already instituted -- the 28 NATO countries agreed to make only a few limited measures on Ukraine, but mainly focused on strengthening their own security interests.
U.S.-Russia relations -- already soured by the animus between their presidents -- have worsened. A new cold war seems to be underway. But some specialists, fearful of where events may be headed, are breaking from the standard narrative.
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