August, 2023

• 3 August

  Suspensions, Detentions, and Mutinies: the Growing Gulf in Russia’s Civil-Military Relations

  

  Suspensions, Detentions, and Mutinies: the Growing Gulf in Russia’s Civil-Military RelationsThe war in Ukraine is challenging the military’s established role in Russian domestic affairs, politicizing the armed forces, and reducing their privileged autonomy in waging war and developing the defense sector.Russian civil-military relations are in crisis. Last month, the Wagner …

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• 3 August

  Is North Korea Set to Become Russia’s Ally Following Shoigu’s Visit?

  

  It is in both countries’ interests to cooperate, since each can provide the other with something in short supply: Russia needs artillery shells for its war, while North Korea needs humanitarian aid.The extensive media coverage of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s recent visit to Pyongyang contained two main messages: that …

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• 3 August

  The Faux Ideologies of Late-Stage Putinism

  

  Imagining history as a civilizational competition is convenient for the current Russian leadership because it means they can perceive themselves as part of a young civilization and, as such, they don’t need to calculate risks, invest in the economy, or conduct a reasonable foreign policy. Youth is forgiven everything, and …

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• 3 August

  Democracy Digest: Orban’s Speech Riles the Neighbours

  

  Elsewhere, Poland continues to talk tough over preventing Ukrainian grain from flooding its market; radicalised Czech pensioners rise up, again; Slovak paediatricians to no longer take on shifts in children’s emergency rooms from next week. Hungarian PM Viktor Orban did not make the international headlines with this year’s speech in …

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• 3 August

  As Kosovo Honours Its Guerrillas, Civilian War Victims Are Often Overlooked

  

  A dispute about engraving civilians’ names on a monument to deceased fighters in a small Kosovo town highlighted a wider problem: although most people killed in the 1998-99 war were civilians, most war memorials commemorate guerrillas. For more than 20 years, the name of Adem Ahmetaj’s nephew Jeton could be …

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• 3 August

  WITNESSING UKRAINIAN ACTION IN ACTION

  

  One of many crowdfunded initiatives that have sprouted up to help Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian Action has just delivered its 200th vehicle filled with humanitarian supplies.The conflict in Ukraine has come to be known as the “crowdfunded war”, as volunteers from around the world use social media to raise …

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• 3 August

  In Belgian-Serbian Arms Deals, Costly ‘Anomalies’ and a Whiff of Fraud

  

  Auditors have flagged “anomalies” worth almost 14 million euros in deals between a Serbian arms factory and a Belgian machinery manufacturer, BIRN can report. In 2017, in the southwestern Serbian town of Pozega, President Aleksandar Vucic cut the ribbon on a factory built to produce ammunition. “Out of nothing, out …

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• 3 August

  Macron conduit la France dans l’impasse en Afrique

  

  Est-ce que le président français actuel est un bon stratège politique ? À l’aune de la déroute de la France au Niger, au Sahel et plus largement sur le continent africain tant sur le point humain, militaire, et géopolitique, la question se pose. Une alliance de pays africains contre la …

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• 3 August

  The Profiteers Of Armageddon – OpEd

  

  Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you’re undoubtedly aware that award-winning director Christopher Nolan has released a new film about Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father of the atomic bomb” for leading the group of scientists who created that deadly weapon as part of …

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• 3 August

  The New Silk Road: A Project For China’s Global Hegemony – Analysis

  

  China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, or as it is called in China, “One Belt, One Road”, is much better known under the name “New Silk Road”. It’s one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of all time. The initiative was launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and includes …

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