The signing in Ankara on 26 December of the contracts for creation of a Trans-Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline sounds the death-knell of the EU’s Nabucco project. It is now high time for Mr Barroso’s Commission to re-examine the folly of its Energy Charter and 3rd Directive on Un-bundling Gas Transmission and Production.
If you type the words “Putin, democracy” in Google search, dozens of articles appear on the screen, all saying one thing. The consequence of such complacent consensus of opinion is a generalized ignorance of where exactly Russia is headed now. Read on…
The recent interview of Vladimir Putin with three senior media executives provides insights into the democratic vision and blind spots of Russia’s leading politician as he prepares for his return to the presidency.
In the 1930s, the Soviet humorists Ilf and Petrov entertained their readers with observations of their travels across the Depression-era United States in One-Story America (published in English as Little Golden America). In the following essay, I return the favor, describing the energy of renascent Russia.
In the countdown to the nearly certain Senate confirmation of U.S. Ambassador to Russia designate Dr. Michael McFaul, it might pay to consider why, if he follows his instincts and his experience, he may be the first U.S. Ambassador to be declared persona non grata in Moscow since October 3, 1952. Read on to find out why….
Continue reading “Can a U.S. Ambassador to Russia be expelled? The pending case of Michael McFaul”
Historians will one day look back at the past week as a decisive tipping point which headed Belgium into split-up. Read on…
In this essay I try to come to grips with the leading publication of the American foreign policy establishment, paying homage to its strengths while highlighting its weaknesses and asking what can be done to use its franchise more beneficially under new management. Read on…
Continue reading “Foreign Affairs magazine: the Ancien Régime”
Is there a hidden agenda of some Greater Flanders patriots within the local administration of France’s Département du Nord? Or are the local officials and citizenry simply blind to what is going on in neighboring Belgium? Read on….
Continue reading “Playing with Matches: the Musée de Flandre, Cassel, France”
Bearing a name which could easily be confused by unsuspecting readers with the world-renowned Council on Foreign Relations based in New York and Washington, the ECFR has been issuing some attention grabbing studies on foreign policy challenges facing the Old Continent. In this essay we examine one of its latest opuses…
Continue reading “The European Council on Foreign Relations: a Think Tank Like No Other”
In the midst of the brouhaha over the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which provided a platform for Russian push-back over America’s democracy agenda, and following closely upon the release of U.S. diplomatic cables revealing NATO’s recent approval of an operational plan to repel a Russian invasion of the Baltics, which contradicts the official identification of Russia as a friendly power posing no threat to the Alliance, Vladimir Putin has chosen to drop the mask and call openly for Russian accession to NATO. Read on….
Continue reading “More on Russia in NATO: Mr Putin Tips His Hand?”
Gilbert Doctorow 