Category: Blogs

Ukraine Versus China: The Fight for Europe’s Market

By James Brooke

In this week of pre-Trump nervousness, three expats—one American and two Brits—are doing what may seem counterintuitive: launching the Ukraine Business Journal in Kyiv. The goal is simple: provide a clear, factual, English-language window on the business opportunities and obstacles in Ukraine. We believe the time is right. Ukraine has a highly educated workforce of […]

The Opposition Struggles to Regain its Balance after Aleppo

By Abdullah Almousa

Since the regime defeated opposition forces in Aleppo, the rebels have been struggling to regain their balance. Reeling from their recent defeat and struggling with internal challenges, though, they have yet to put forth any solid plan.

Trump Renews His Criticism of NATO: ‘It’s Obsolete’ and ‘Very Unfair’ to the US

By Donald Trump, Michael Gove, and Kai Diekmann, Times (London)

Excerpt from Donald Trump interview with Michael Gove MP and Kai Diekmann, former chief editor of the German newspaper Bild.

With Migration Policy Change, Obama Leaves Cuba Relationship to Trump

By Ashish Kumar Sen

White House ends policy that allowed Cubans reaching US soil to automatically apply for asylum US President Barack Obama’s decision to end the “wet foot, dry foot” policy that allowed any Cuban migrant who reached US soil to stay in the country will slow the number of Cuban immigrants rushing to the United States, but […]

OPEC Oil Deal Will Stick, say Energy Ministers

The oil production cuts set forth in a deal recently enacted by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will be upheld by the nations involved, effectively stabilizing the global energy market, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC’s secretary general, said in Abu Dhabi on January 12. “I remain very confident with what I have seen […]

Trump’s Energy, Climate Positions Causing Concern

By Ashish Kumar Sen

While there is “quite a bit of concern” about the direction of US President-elect Donald Trump’s energy policy, he is unlikely to take the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement for the simple reason that doing so would cause “huge collateral damage” to the United States, Todd Stern, a former US State […]

NATO Chief: We See ‘a More Assertive Russia’

By Jens Stoltenberg, NATO

We don’t see any imminent threat against any NATO ally. What we see is a more assertive Russia.

Tillerson on Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

When speaking about Syria, President Obama and his key aides have never denied the vital connection between the Assad regime’s collective punishment survival strategy—mass homicide, wholesale displacement, starvation sieges, Nazi-style penal practices, state terror—and the ability of Islamist extremists in Syria to live long and prosper. But by failing to complicate and slow the sanguinary […]

Analysis: The Fifth Corps and the State of the Syrian Army

By Abdulrahman al-Masri

On November 22, the General Command of the Syrian Army announced the formation of its first official volunteer-based military force, the Fifth Assault Corps. The official statement described it as a commando force aimed at “fighting terrorism,” which would be deployed alongside other army units and foreign allied forces (but did not specify where). Among […]

US Should Require Russia’s RT to Register as Foreign Agent

By Elena Postnikova

Russia used RT, its TV channel, to influence the recent US elections. This was the finding of the recently declassified US intelligence report; it concluded that Russia implemented a multifaceted campaign involving disclosures of data obtained through hacking, intrusions into state and local electoral boards, and propaganda. While the American elite is debating an appropriate […]