In The News

Russia’s Climate Change Turn: Wall Street Journal

Georgi Kantchev August 23, 2019
Russian leaders who once belittled climate change's urgency have reversed course after wildfires and floods. “Smoke from massive wildfires raging across an area the size of Belgium has engulfed hundreds of villages in Siberia – and spread as far as Seattle and Vancouver,” reports Georgi Kantchev for the Wall Street Journal. Russian scientists point to climate change and temperatures rising...

US May Withdraw Troops From Germany: DW

Timothy Jones August 9, 2019
The United States argues that Iran is an international security threat after withdrawing from a nuclear deal. Germany does not agree and has remained in the agreement along with Russia, China and the European Union. The two countries also do not agree on a budget and funding sources for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The US ambassador has suggested that the United States could withdraw...

US Warns on EU Defense Cooperation: Deutsche Welle

May 15, 2019
Since entering office in 2017, the Trump administration embraced America First policies, urging Europe to spend more on its defense and raising doubts about US commitment for the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance. European Union member states have since pursued greater cooperation on defense and self-reliance. “The United States has decried ‘poison pills’ embedded in proposed rules which could shut...

Germany’s NATO Spending: Spiegel

Matthias Gebauer, Konstantin von Hammerstein, Christiane Hoffmann and Marcel Rosenbach April 3, 2019
Even the strongest organizations have disagreements over dues and approaches to problems, and this is true of NATO. NATO expects members to contribute 2 percent of GDP for NATO, but Europe’s economies are struggling. Germany spends less than 1.5 percent, attributed to lingering resistance to militarism that contributed to World War II. Meanwhile, members like Turkey and Italy drift in closer ties...

Europe and Nuclear Power Plays: Spiegel

Markus Becker, Christian Esch, Matthias Gebauer, Konstantin von Hammerstein, Christiane Hoffmann, Peter Müller, Jan Puhl, Christoph Schult, Klaus Wiegrefe and Bernhard Zand February 11, 2019
The United States has started the process of withdrawing from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The treaty led to destruction of thousands of missiles and rockets with ranges between 500 and 5,000 kilometers, but the US and Russia eventually accused each other of violations. More than 10 nations, including China, now have midrange rockets. This Spiegel Online article suggests...

Reuters: Erdoğan Rebukes US Security Adviser

Steve Holland and Orhan Coskun January 8, 2019
Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw US troops from Syria, adding that the Islamic State had been defeated. This followed a December telephone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who offered assurances that Turkey would manage final stages of the military campaign. Turkey and the United States, both NATO members, disagree about terms for the withdrawal. John Bolton, the US...

BBC: Russia-Ukraine Tensions Rise

November 26, 2018
Russia is expanding control over Ukraine step by step – annexing Crimea in 2014, supporting militants in eastern Ukraine, inspecting vessels passing through the Kerch strait, and most recently opening fire on and confiscating three naval vessels off the Crimean coast. The Ukrainian vessels were trying to sail from the Black Sea port of Odessa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, and Russia’s control...