The United States is pushing a plan to export Qatari gas to the European Union in the event Russia invades Ukraine. Qatar may soon export natural gas to Europe amid the looming conflict between Russia and Ukraine. For weeks, Russia has been amassing troops on the border with its western …
Read More »Turkish-backed rebels step up attacks on Islamic State in north Syria
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army is cracking down on the Islamic State cells, amid an uptick in suicide attacks in north Syria. The Turkish-backed Syrian opposition has waged a security campaign against Islamic State (IS) cells in Azaz in the northern Aleppo countryside since Jan. 20, leading to the arrest …
Read More »Can Biden Unwind Trump’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Venezuela and Iran?
When President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20, he will inherit two types of problems from his predecessor. The first will involve repairing the damage President Donald Trump created through neglect: the alliances, partnerships, multilateral organizations and U.S. government institutions to which Trump paid too little attention the past …
Read More »There is no NATO open-door policy
In the current crisis involving Russia, Ukraine and Western countries, it is often asserted that because the NATO alliance has an “open-door” policy, Ukraine must retain its right to join the alliance someday. That is incorrect. While Russia should not be allowed to veto Ukraine’s hypothetical membership in NATO, there …
Read More »Parsing the Evidence: Will Russia Invade Ukraine?
This week, with Washington rejecting two of Moscow’s three key security demands, Russian military equipment massing near the border with Ukraine and NATO “prepared for the worst,” the question dominating global affairs remains: Will Russia invade Ukraine? The White House answer is a qualified yes, the Kremlin’s a qualified no. …
Read More »Russia, US exchange accusations over Ukraine at UN
Russia accused the West on Monday of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow’s troop buildup near its southern neighbor. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that …
Read More »US forces in Europe could be deployed to Eastern Europe soon as Russia-NATO tensions increase, Pentagon says
Some U.S. troops in Europe could be moved to NATO countries farther east on the Continent as Russia continued to amass forces over the weekend in Belarus and along its border with Ukraine, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday. President Joe Biden said Friday night that he soon intends …
Read More »Russia Has Been Warning About Ukraine for Decades. The West Should Have Listened
hen I was a journalist for The Times (London) in Moscow in December 1992, I saw a print-out of a speech by the then Russian foreign minister, Andrei Kozyrev, warning that if the West continued to attack vital Russian interests and ignore Russian protests, there would one day be a …
Read More »NATO Chief Outlines NATO’s Response To Renewed Tensions In Europe
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Friday reiterated that NATO is the most successful Alliance in history, because Allies have remained united and because NATO has been able to adapt. That is exactly what NATO is doing today in the face of renewed tensions in Europe resulting from Russia’s significant and unprovoked …
Read More »The Return Of Inflation In US And Western Europe
Inflation was one of the landmark economic stories of the late 20th century. Mounting macroeconomic challenges in the 1960s led to the 1971 US decision to abandon the Bretton Woods standard and, along with oil market disruptions after 1973, unleashed the Great Inflation — an unprecedented price-wage spiral by postwar …
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