One take-away from talking to those close to the Summit is that there is lively enthusiasm over the resurrection of a bipolar if not multipolar world on the Black Continent and Putin’s reputation is riding high. Read on….
Continue reading “4th Africa-EU Summit and the Ukrainian Crisis: gossip in the corridors”
We are at an inflection point. Free will is still operative. The main actors still can make a choice where to go next. However, at any moment, by the action or inaction of any side, the situation may spin out of their control and determinism may set in, putting us on a collision course in a hot crisis with no obvious denouement and large parts of the globe sucked in as proxy players. Read on…
Continue reading “Further lessons in Realpolitik: last chance to engage with Russia”
This analytical essay deals with two news items. One is good news, that the end of the world is not nigh. To all appearances, the storm has blown over and the risk of uncontrolled escalation of the East-West confrontation sparked by the coup d’état in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Moscow has subsided substantially. The bad news is that we are well into the New Cold War. Read on
Continue reading “Barack Obama’s Speech in Bozar: Is there a New Cold War?”
Washington word games tell it all: the new designation of the G-8 as a format for the ‘world’s biggest industrial economies’ instead of ‘democracies’ prepares the way for China’s accession following Russia’s ejection. Read on….
Analysts of American foreign policy in the Middle East have long denounced the Israeli lobby for hijacking Congress and tying the President’s hands. However, this is child’s play compared to the publicly financed War Party that is now directing United States policy towards Russia and heading us all into a New Cold War if not nuclear Armageddon. Read on…
Continue reading “The War Party in Washington and the Sanctions Toolkit”
In this interpretive essay, I will focus on what the speech tells us about the hierarchy of considerations driving the Kremlin’s policy with respect to Crimea, with respect to Ukraine, with respect to its ‘Near Abroad’ and the world at large. These are the factors that should determine the Western response if it is to rise from its present amateurism. Read on…
Continue reading “Vladimir Putin’s Speech to the Federal Assembly on Crimean Accession: Commentary”
Name calling, i.e. ad hominem arguments, are just one of a whole series of violations of the ancient art of public debate that America’s War Party practices daily with regard to the Ukraine crisis. What we have here is a ‘burn before reading’ mentality, a new know-nothing-ism. Read on…
Continue reading “‘Apologists for Putin’ and America’s discussion of the Ukraine crisis”
The threat to the safety and security of Russian-speakers in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea which Mr. Putin’s government cites as its overriding motive for any military intervention is derided as exaggerated by the West. However, even before the incipient civil war being egged on by Pravy Sektor today spills blood, the experience of the Baltic States shows what shabby treatment awaits Russian speakers in a Ukraine run by the Maidan even with a fairy godmother from Brussels looking on.…
Continue reading “Latvia’s 300,000 Non-Citizens and the Ukrainian Crisis Today”
Since the United States and Europe have whipped up the anti-Russian rhetoric to the levels of the worst days of the Cold War, no one should be surprised if the Russian approach to Ukraine is following the famous one-liner attributed to Nikita Khrushchev: “what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable.” Read on…
Continue reading “EU-US Sanctions and the Russian Annexation of Crimea”
I contend that Vladimir Putin has all along seen the Crimea not as a prospective fruit of conquest or consolation for loss of the Ukraine but as a bargaining chip for ensuring the interests of the substantial populations of Russian nationals and Russian speakers in East Ukraine, the Crimea and the Odessa region are formally taken into account by the constitutional arrangements of the country. Read on….
Continue reading “Vladimir Putin, Clausewitz and Sun Tzu: Grammar lessons for today”
