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UkraineAlert

May 9, 2016

Ukraine’s Unique Totalitarian Trauma Offers Key to Historic Healing

By Peter Dickinson

Across the former Soviet Union, May 9 is traditionally the date for Victory Day celebrations to mark the end of World War II. In Ukraine, it can often feel as if the war never actually ended. Ever since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, World War II has served as a proxy battleground for Ukrainians as […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 9, 2016

Why EU Sanctions on Russia Are Overrated but Still Needed

By Christopher A. Hartwell and Andreas Umland

Calls for canceling the EU’s sanctions on Russia after they expire in July 2016 have recently been gathering momentum across Western Europe. On April 28, the French parliament passed a non-binding resolution recommending that the EU’s trade limits and other restrictions on Russia be lifted. Framing the sanctions as both ineffective and dangerous to France’s […]

Russia Ukraine

SyriaSource

May 9, 2016

Beating the Blob and Disentangling from Partners

By Frederic C. Hof

Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, is the subject of David Samuels’ piece in the New York Times Magazine: “The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign Policy Guru”. If Jeffrey Goldberg’s March 2016 on the “Obama doctrine” was not a sufficient foreign policy Rosetta Stone to decode an administration absolutely […]

Syria
Troops participating in NATO Noble Jump exercise, June 14, 2015

NATOSource

May 6, 2016

Restoring Conventional Deterrence in Europe: How to Climb Out of the Joint Security Trap

By Jeffrey A. Stacey

Russia is currently riding high on the geostrategic landscape, despite a trove of domestic economic woes that stem partly from Western sanctions.

NATO Russia
NATO exercise in Baltic Sea, May 29, 2015

NATOSource

May 6, 2016

The Case for a More Robust NATO Presence in the Baltic Sea

By Franklin D. Kramer and Magnus Nordenman

NATO has also begun to plan and exercise for maritime contingencies in the region, with additional bilateral and national exercises as complements.

France Germany

New Atlanticist

May 6, 2016

Why NATO Allies Should Be Worried About the Scottish Elections

By John Johnston

NATO partners must take a closer look at the defense policies of Scottish political parties in the wake of the Scottish National Party’s historic election victory on May 5 and its leader’s declaration that she reserves the right to hold a second independence referendum if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union “against our will.” […]

NATO Nuclear Nonproliferation
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, March 7, 2009

NATOSource

May 6, 2016

Russia Warns Sweden About NATO Membership, May Deploy Missiles

By Dagen Nyheter and RT

From Dagens Nyheter:  Excerpts from Michael Winiarski interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

NATO NATO Partnerships

SyriaSource

May 6, 2016

Books as Weapons of Resistance

By Rahaf Habboub

Amer turns the pages of a book. He is sitting in the hallways of an underground library where he creates a world for himself far away from the outside world above. Holding a copy of Commentary on the Mu’allaqat, he explains that he feels that his soul is full of poetry. Despite the sounds of […]

Syria

SyriaSource

May 6, 2016

Aleppo: A View from Idlib

By Saleem al-Omar

These days, Idlib residents all have their eyes fixed on the sky following the fighter jets heading north to strike Aleppo. The air strikes destroyed Al-Quds hospital and the infrastructure in Aleppo. Local residents are fearful of a looming war in Idlib that will have the same fate as Aleppo.

Syria

New Atlanticist

May 6, 2016

How Ukraine Can Solve Its Local Election Conundrum

By John E. Herbst

Even when it is effective, diplomacy can be an unsightly business. Perhaps nothing illustrates this better than that ugly, illegitimate child of Mother Russia’s war in Ukraine: the Minsk agreements. In recent months, Germany and France have been pressing Ukraine to pass a local elections law as the basis for holding elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic […]

Ukraine
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