Politics & Diplomacy

The Putin Doctrine: Russia defends autocrats from Belarus to Kazakhstan

By Victor Tregubov

The deployment of a Russia-led military mission to Kazakhstan in early January proved to be a short-lived affair. Nevertheless, it underlined Putin’s growing role as the world’s leading defender of authoritarianism.

If the West sticks together, it can find a way forward with Russia

By Daniel Fried

The US and Europe need to resist the temptation to respond to threats with concessions, and maintain a willingness to discuss European security in a way that benefits all, not just Moscow.

Kyiv Diary: Ukrainians await Putin’s invasion and Poroshenko’s arrest

By Vladislav Davidzon

The threat of a full-scale Russian invasion and the prospect of a major political scandal sparked by the arrest of former president Petro Poroshenko have failed to induce panic among the hardy crisis veterans of Kyiv.

Calls grow within Germany for tougher stance towards Putin’s Russia

By Alexander Motyl

German foreign policy experts have published an appeal demanding Germany’s Russia policy be fundamentally changed from tacit encouragement to open resistance of Vladimir Putin’s expansionist designs.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan: An emerging right-wing threat to Pakistan’s democracy

By Roohan Ahmed

Videos circulating on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms showed a violent mob dragging a half-dead man on the streets of Sialkot, Pakistan on December 1, 2021. As the TLP’s influence grows and its ideology spreads, the de-radicalization of Pakistani society looks like an even more distant dream.

Fried in The Financial Times: Western unity will prevail in the stand-off with Putin

"Coming weeks may see rising tensions but outright war with Ukraine would be a risky roll of the dice for Russia," writes Daniel Fried for the Financial Times.

Germany has sentenced a Syrian colonel to life for crimes against humanity. Will others face the same fate?

Now that Anwar Raslan is behind bars, activists are hoping his conviction paves the way for other bad actors of the Syrian regime to be prosecuted.