Tag: Soviet Union
Why Europe Can’t Shut Off Russian Gas
No fossil fuel is more important to understanding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than natural gas. Russia sells gas to Europe via pipelines; Europe relies on it to heat its buildings, power its industry, and generate electricity. This interdependent relationship has gone on for decades, and although it may soon come to a close, it has limited the West from imposing harsher sanctions on Russia than it might have otherwise: The sanctions were “specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue,”
When it comes to diplomacy, Wolfgang Ischinger means business – POLITICO
MUNICH
It was the kind of tense moment that Wolfgang Ischinger was born to defuse. The veteran German diplomat and chairman of the annual Munich Security Conference was hosting a meeting between leaders from the Balkans and senior European and American diplomats when anger bubbled up over the slow progress countries from the region were making toward joining the European Union.
“You have to tell us if you want us or not,” Serbian President Aleksandar
The Reason Putin Would Risk War
There are questions about troop numbers, questions about diplomacy. There are questions about the Ukrainian military, its weapons, and its soldiers. There are questions about Germany and France: How will they react? There are questions about America, and how it has come to be a central player in a conflict not of its making. But of all the questions that repeatedly arise about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, the one that gets the least satisfactory answers is this one:
Should China Be at the Center of Biden’s Foreign-Policy Strategy?
It was catnip for policy analysts: Henceforth, the Biden administration signaled recently, the U.S. government would refer to its approach to China and other adversaries by a new name. Out was the Trump-era term, great-power competition. In was strategic competition. The assessments of what it all meant poured forth.
But lost in the debate was the fact that the U.S. government appeared to be tweaking the semantics of the organizing principle of its foreign policy and grand
What Henry Kissinger Could Teach Joe Biden
Last month, President Joe Biden went before the United Nations General Assembly in New York and declared the end of America’s forever wars in the Middle East. “As we close this period of relentless war,” he told the assembled representatives, “we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy.”
But Biden’s speech was accompanied by inauspicious diplomatic steps. First came the shambolic and ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left America’s allies feeling that the United States had failed to consult
Washington Is Getting China Wrong
Evergrande Group, one of China’s largest property developers, is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy. Its founder, Hui Ka Yan, is scrounging to find the cash to meet payments on the $300 billion his company owes. Beijing has warned local officials to prepare for possible fallout if the gargantuan firm collapses. Around the world, financial analysts are wondering if Evergrande is China’s “Lehman moment,” the starting gun for a destructive wave of defaults that could take down the