In The News

Russian Hearts, Minds and Refrigerators

Gideon Rachman February 19, 2015
Polls expose divisions among Russians over their government’s intervention in Ukraine: there is a nationalistic streak with 44 percent viewing Americans as the enemy, but also a practical side, with 19 percent suggesting Ukraine belongs to Russia, down from near 50 percent a year ago, reports Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times. Many observers do not expect a ceasefire to last. How far Russia...

Islam and the West at War

Roger Cohen February 17, 2015
The West, led by the United States, invaded Afghanistan and Iraq to eliminate dictatorial and extremist forces. Civil war has raged in Syria since early 2011; not long afterward, Islamic State terrorists took advantage of a power vacuum to assert rigid controls and slaughter Christians, Shia Muslims, Muslim troops from nearby countries as well as journalists and aid workers. The conflict’s roots...

What Germany Owes Ukraine

James Kirchick February 16, 2015
Foreign Policy Initiative Fellow James Kirchick blasts the depiction of Angela Merkel as Europe’s “Iron Lady” as she orchestrates diplomacy with Russia over aggression in Ukraine while emphasizing military confrontation is not an option. Kirchick assesses Putin’s strategy: “He intends to punish Ukraine for ousting its pro-Russian leader” through “a semi-permanent condition of low-intensity armed...

New Ceasefire Points Toward Frozen Conflict in Ukraine

David R. Cameron February 12, 2015
A ceasefire in the fighting for eastern Ukraine was announced after leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine met in Minsk. But a ceasefire alone may not produce a comprehensive settlement or an enduring peace, warns David R. Cameron, professor of political science at Yale University. “That requires resolution of the underlying, and possibly intractable, dispute over the constitutional form...

The Future of Force

Joseph S. Nye February 11, 2015
Security threats have evolved in recent decades, and governments must likewise prepare strategies beyond the use of force to monitor, control insurgent groups that are destabilizing so much of the Middle East and Africa. Joseph Nye of Harvard University who coined the phrase soft power points to a trend pf blurred boundaries between military troops and civilians: “Accelerating this shift is the...

Israelis Wonder If Netanyahu Risks Too Much in Obama Tussle

Batsheva Sobelman and Laura King February 11, 2015
Governments establish protocols and rules on procedures for official events and diplomacy to establish order and avoid unpleasantness. Leaders in democracies are often cautious during election seasons. Any appearance of efforts to influence election results of another nation often backfire. Israelis and American Jews are expressing concerns about Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans...

The Fight Against ISIS After the Death of Jordan’s Pilot

Aaron David Miller February 6, 2015
The civilized world is repulsed by the war crimes committed by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq: rape and coerced marriages for young girls; numerous beheadings of aid workers, journalists as well as the organization’s own foot soldiers who question orders; the execution of a young Jordanian pilot by burning him alive. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Aaron David Miller suggests the war...