Russia in Global Affairs

The leak of a European “Coalition of the Willing” counter-proposal to the U.S. 28-point plan has clarified one thing: much of Europe is still negotiating with an imagined Russia and an imagined Ukraine.

Starmer and Putin will speak sooner than we all expect. How soon is up to Starmer. It could depend on how much worse things get for his government. Rather than wait for doomsday, Starmer should recognise and use the spring in his jump on the world stage. It really would not hurt to give the Russian president a call. The alternative clearly has not achieved anything.

A strategic vision of international relations is of great importance to Russia. All global players are locked in a state of zugzwang and prefer to play a tactical waiting game: who will make the first mistake or exhaust their resources? Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is already prepared, drawing on the philosophy of complexity, to outline the contours of a new, conciliar world order.

The challenges to border governance and procedural obstacles are merely tests on the road to openness. Visa-free travel opens a window of opportunity for Chinese society to gain a better understanding of Russia. Thus, rather than worrying about “too many Chinese coming,” Russians should steer for deepening understanding.

For the Netanyahu right-wing government, the Israelis traumatized by the perceived existential threat from the Palestinians, compounded by the historical trauma of the Holocaust injustices, had to respond to Hamas’s attacks with genocide in Gaza. Once the psychological barriers were overcome, violence became highly tangible.

While there are many more words that politicians use in their verbal manipulative strategies and that are worthy of analysis, ‘peace’ and ‘deal’ explain well enough one compelling reason for the dire circumstances the world is in today.

The Pakistan-Saudi Arabia agreement is notable not just for what it includes, but for what it leaves obscure. The deliberate opacity allows both states to send a strong deterrent signal without confining themselves to inflexible commitments. In a region where security threats are diffuse and alliances are often tested by shifting loyalties, this flexibility may be its greatest strength.

For all of Trump 2.0’s vulgarity and ignorance, his game show policy lacks consistency of purpose, while the roller coaster of uncertainty and risk is uniquely accelerating the U.S./Global North’s decline and the rise of the Global South.

Labour is having a really bad time. Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner recently resigned after a property tax scandal. Sir Keir Starmer has historically low approval ratings. Labour is also polling a distant second, and most of the UK is unsure what the party stands for. Scratch the surface a little and see that Labour is actually in a stronger position than the British media and most experts give it credit for.