Peace for the Dovish Serpent, a prayer to the Pope

With great shame, kneeling down, with all my heart, I would like to offer another perspective to the Holy Father on the extremely delicate matter of the Ukrainian war and of Ukraine’s negotiations, or even possible “surrender,” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is in a gridlock. He started the war at the end of […]

Russia and the West after Navalny

The death of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most influential opponent, is deepening the chasm between Russia and the West, with unfathomable consequences for the future. The penitentiary administration states that he died of natural causes. At the same time, his family and friends claim he was deliberately killed, possibly due to Putin’s sudden change […]

North Korea bombards tension and helps Russia

The extended Russian fighting in Ukraine is causing global geopolitical tremors across Eurasia. Seventy years ago, the war in Korea heightened tensions and the threat of war in Europe; now, the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza are heightening worries and risks in Asia. On Friday, North Korea fired over 200 rounds of artillery that fell […]

Putin’s broader war and his survival calculus

By September, it was clear that while the much-expected Ukrainian offensive didn’t create a breakthrough, neither did the ensuing Russian counteroffensive. Neither side has a decisive advantage over the other. Lawrence Freedman argued[1] convincingly that we must think about the definition of victory for Ukraine, as Kyiv is not set on marching on Moscow. The […]

China’s Tightrope with Russia and Israel

China’s present troubles with the US might be rooted in a misperception of what should have been done in the past. What did China do when America struggled in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004-2005? Rather than helping it in these difficulties, Beijing kept aloof politically and slowed down the economic and political reforms it had […]

War and Peace with Ukrainian Characteristics

Few in Washington seem overly worried about the apparent stalemate in Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces can’t break through Russia’s fortified defenses. Meanwhile, America is entirely concentrated on the latest from China – complex malware reportedly able to cripple US cyber systems. According to The New York Times, which broke the story: “The discovery of the malware has […]