• Shared Water Resources: Source of Both Peace and Conflict

    From the Euphrates to the Mekong, dams that ensure one country’s water supply risk leaving others parched. But shared water resources can be a source of peace as well as conflict.

  • Ukraine War’s Impact on Critical Materials Supply, Green Energy

    The elephant in the room is Europe’s dependence on the vast quantities of hydrocarbons that flow from Russia into Europe, but Putin’s war on Ukraine has the potential to affect many key supply chains for materials that will contribute to the clean energy transition.

  • Russia’s Energy Clout Doesn’t Just Come from Oil and Gas – It’s Also a Key Nuclear Supplier

    As Western nations look for ways to reduce their reliance on Russian oil and gas, another aspect of the Ukraine crisis has received less attention: Most of the 32 countries that use nuclear power rely on Russia for some part of their nuclear fuel supply chain. Economic fallout from the war in Ukraine could disrupt access to fuel for the nuclear power industry.

  • Can Germany Wean Itself Off Russian Gas?

    Experts are divided on how quickly Germany could cut imports of Russian energy and stop funding President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. How vulnerable would such a move leave Europe’s largest economy?

  • A Proxy War in Ukraine Is the Worst Possible Outcome – Except for All the Others

    The United States and its European allies clearly said that they will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Sam Winter-Levy writes that these statements obscured an important truth: The United States and its allies are already in the midst of a full-blown proxy war with Russia. “Western policymakers should not deceive themselves about just how ugly proxy wars tend to be… Ultimately, the only options worse than a proxy war are a cheap Russian victory in Ukraine — or a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.

  • Western Officials: Russia's Failures in Ukraine May Make Putin More Dangerous

    New intelligence estimates suggest that up to 20 percent of Russian troops sent into Ukraine have been killed, wounded or captured as Ukraine fights Moscow to a near standstill. Senior Western officials are increasingly alarmed that Russia’s losses in Ukraine are making President Vladimir Putin more dangerous, some going as far as to compare him to a caged animal ready to lash out.

  • Europe After the Ukraine War

    The war in Ukraine is still raging, and its outcome not yet certain, but there is no doubt that the war, in Ralph Cohen’s words, is “a watershed historical event.” He highlights four macro-levels trends which are upending the strategic balance in Europe. Russia will likely emerge weaker but, perhaps, no less dangerous, but Europe will likely become stronger militarily, less energy dependent, and more unified against Russia.

  • A Solution to the Ukraine War Emerges

    Russian and Ukrainian sources said that both sides now agree that the likely solution to the Ukraine crisis is a neutral Ukraine with its own armed forces, but which is not a member of NATO. The examples of Austria and Sweden have been proposed as models. The status of the Crimean Peninsula and the Donbass region is still a sticking point, but both sides say that the atmosphere in the negotiations has become more positive and constructive.

  • U.S. Names Colombia a Major Non-NATO Ally

    The United States intends to name Colombia a “major non-NATO ally” — a particularly timely announcement for a South American nation seen as a bulwark against Venezuela, which is a Russian ally and foe of the United States.

  • War in Ukraine Could Cut Global Supply of Essential Elements for Making Green Technology

    The EU imports 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and nearly half of the five million barrels of crude oil Russia exports daily go to Europe. Decisive action by major economies to reduce coal, oil and gas imports from one of the world’s largest sources could accelerate the transition to green energy globally. But there’s a catch. Disruption to the supply of critical metals and other materials caused by the war in Ukraine could stall the roll-out of alternative technologies.

  • U.S. Calls for War Crimes Probe into Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

    U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed calls Thursday from world leaders for an international war crimes investigation into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its bombing of civilians, including children and pregnant women at a maternity hospital.

  • Putin May Use Chechen War Playbook in Ukraine

    The Russian military campaign in Ukraine has been slower than expected, and Vladimir Putin may turn to the indiscriminate tactics of the wars in Chechnya that turned Chechen cities to rubble in the 1990s and early 2000s, human rights activists say.

  • Four Comments on the Situation in Ukraine

    After two weeks of costly fighting and widespread destruction, it is clear that Russia has launched its invasion of Ukraine with several flawed assumptions, which led to a flawed operational approach. The response of the West has been unified and impressive – and one of the likely lasting changes which has been brought about by the war, has been the sea change in the German approach to European politics and security, and the role of Germany in both.

  • Is Putin Irrational? Nuclear Strategic Theory on How to Deter Potentially Irrational Opponents

    Vladimir Putin’s astonishing lapse of judgment in invading Ukraine has fueled speculation that the Russian president may have taken leave of his senses. If this assessments is accurate, then the world faces a highly disturbing situation: a mad king in possession of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. If Putin is not a rational adversary, then the policies that would deter a more-reasonable man may fail or even backfire.

  • China Expands Influence in Central America

    With a library here, a power station there, China is using aid and investment to increase its presence in Central America, posing a challenge to the United States’ 2-century-old diplomatic dominance in the region.