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29 january 2014
Syrian crisis: Book with an open ending
The stakes are high for both the U.S. and Russia as Geneva II gets underway.
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18 january 2014
Russia plays the Iran card
Moscow believes that Iran's role in the Middle East will only become more prominent in the future, prompting it to further boost relations at the expense of US regional influence.
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26 december 2013
New Contours of U.S. Foreign Policy
The United States is backpedaling – reducing the range of tasks, gathering the resources of its allies, separating the timeframes for reaching its goals. An authentic review of the priorities of American policy will occur if and when the resources of adaptation strategy are exhausted.
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23 november 2013
Russia's Turnaround in the Middle East
Russian foreign policy in the region has benefited from a steady, non-ideological focus, as well as the missteps and neglect of other powers.
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7 november 2013
Vladimir Putin as World's No. 1: The Burden of Responsibility
All ratings are constructs which reflect not so much the real state of affairs as their compilers’ perception of it.
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27 october 2013
The Iranian Key to the Middle East Door
(1)The view on national development and foreign policy has been firmly mixed in the minds of Iranians with a skeptical, and one can even say ironical, perception of the West’s attempts to portray its way of life and values as the only “civilized system.”
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5 september 2013
Putin See US on Dangerous Course in Syria Russia
(1)The Americans are confused. They do not understand what to do, but they see the use of force as the solution to every problem, even when the consequences are unknown. Russia does not know how to work with such a partner.
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30 june 2013
The Arab Spring and the Elusive Fifth Model?
If the Arab Spring were to bring about meaningful changes to Arab societies, what is needed is a political order that is not only democratic but also inclusive. To be credible, the Arab world, including its Islamists, will have to tread the long and painful path of consensus building. This method is inclusive and hence more enduring than electoral democracy.
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15 april 2013
The Arab Spring and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict: international implications
The main impact of the Arab Spring has not been to increase, but to diminish the importance of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for the broader politics of the Arab World.
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15 april 2013
Syria As a Mirror of the Changing World Order
(1)The Arab Spring and the crisis in Syria merely aggravated contradictions that had formed a gap between Realpolitik and the observance of the de jure intact norms of international law. Today’s question is this: Is the international community able to take concerted actions or will inflated ambitions of regional centers of power gain the upper hand?
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15 april 2013
A Hazy Outlook
The time must come for the Middle East to witness the dawn of a new era – that of common sense, when all of us finally understand that this long-suffering region can and must be turned from a place of hostility and rivalry into a site for building a new, fairer, and lasting peace. A conflict of civilizations would be the sole alternative to that scenario.
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24 june 2012
A Turning Point in the Middle East Geopolitics
(1)The geopolitical changes brought about by the Arab Uprising showed that there is a rivalry between regional actors (Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel) and international actors and great powers (United States, Russia, China and the European Union) to bridge geopolitical and ideological gaps.
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25 march 2012
A Greater Middle East Spring? Or War?
The tight knot of contradictions surrounding the Iranian nuclear program and Tehran’s policy in general has affected so profound international policies that any attempt to cut it may blow up peace already in the short term, and not only in the Greater Middle East.
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24 september 2011
Moving From the Bottom Up and Back Down Again
Many analysts believe the dramatic changes that the global international system is undergoing now are a continuation of a long-term reconfiguration of the world that started back in the 1980s.
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7 july 2011
Out of the confusion, conspiracy theories emerge
The past year in global politics offered plenty of fodder for conspiracy theorists.
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22 june 2011
When Dreams “Come True”
The culture of tolerance and respect for the rights of minorities is much more important than a democratic form of government and the related procedures, such as free multiparty elections. However, such a liberal political culture is absent from the Arab-Muslim world – and the introduction of a new, formally democratic form of government will not lead to the triumph of liberal values.
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22 june 2011
When the Dust Settles
The fallout from the turbulent events of the winter and spring of 2011 is gradually subsiding.
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23 april 2011
Arab spring - after the euphoria has faded
The unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has not stopped, but the feeling of sensational novelty it created in winter is fading.
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31 march 2011
Those peace-loving Germans
(1)The vote in the UN Security Council that sanctioned military intervention in Libya may have serious consequences for European politics.
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27 march 2011
Revolutions and Democracy in the Islamic World
With growing presence of China, India and Iran the composition of players and the alignment of forces in the Middle East in the 21st century will look more like that in the 17th century than the 20th. This fits in perfectly with the theory of historical cycles, although it may appear disappointing, if looked at from the positions of Paris, London, Brussels or Washington.
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27 march 2011
Putin, Medvedev split over Libya
The bombing of Libya has already had unexpected consequences: an unprecedented split between Russia’s ruling tandem.
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18 march 2011
In pursuit of common sense
(1)Global politics seems to have been going slightly mad for quite a while now, but the past few months have seen this outbreak rise to critical levels.
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25 february 2011
Learning from Libya and Singapore
The revolutionary fervor that has gripped the Middle East has not yet spread to the relatively stable former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
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A Rapidly Changing Reality
(2265)
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China’s Geoeconomics and the ‘New Cold War’
(1854)
Glenn Diesen -
Tectonics of the New World Order and the Russian Far East
(1588)
Viktoria Panova -
Will US pullout from Syria increase risk of conflict with Russia?
(1371)
Fyodor Lukyanov -
The Soviet Union and the Iranian Revolution
(1339)
Dmitry Asinovsky
A new world order: A view from Russia
Since around 2017–2018, the world has been living through a period of progressive erosion, or collapse, of international orders inherited from the past. With the election of Donald Trump and the rapid increase of US containment of Russia and China—which is both a consequence of this gradual erosion and also represents deep internal and international contradictions—this process entered its apogee.
Will US pullout from Syria increase risk of conflict with Russia?
The announcement of the US pullout from Syria was received with caution in Moscow. Besides the security and political challenges it may bring about, the Trump decision could mean the end of a practical, relatively constructive US-Russian approach to conflict at flashpoints.
The World Needs Europe
Having emerged from centuries of bloodshed to become the poster child for integration and collaboration, Europe has a distinct service to offer the rest of the world. With the international order coming apart and populist nationalism on the rise, now is the time for the European Union to show leadership, both at home and abroad.
Political Multipolarity vs. Economic Unipolarity: 2018 Results and 2019 Intrigues
Summing up the results of 2018, one is tempted to lay emphasis on a number of major events and trends. However, that carries the risk of neglecting systemic issues that generate the diversity of individual phenomena. The understanding of these issues provides us with an analytical ability that helps us attribute numerous events to a more or less understandable model.
Entering 2019: Challenges and Opportunities
We should fully reject the concept of Western, or liberal, universalism in favor of developmental pluralism.
China’s Geoeconomics and the ‘New Cold War’
Chinese geoeconomics is making a great leap forward to adjust to rapid technological developments and a changing international distribution of power. The world is entering a new industrial revolution that further decouples the relationship between capital and labour, which incentivises Beijing to abandon its reliance on low-wage competitiveness and instead take the lead in developing high-tech strategic industries with its digital Silk Road.
Why We Must Prohibit Cyberattacks on Nuclear Systems: the Case for Pre-Emptive US–Russia Arms Control
Almost 35 years ago, US President Ronald Reagan settled down in the White House to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster WarGames as part of his regular Sunday film night. The film, starring a young Matthew Broderick, depicted a teenage computer hacker accidentally breaking into top-secret Pentagon supercomputers that controlled US nuclear weapons.