Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Ukraine

Why Western Law Enforcement Should Target Russia’s Ruling Elite

Why Western Law Enforcement Should Target Russia’s Ruling Elite

In contrast to their strident rhetoric about Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the EU and the U.S. have imposed only limited, albeit targeted, sanctions, primarily against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. By imposing sanctions on Bank Rossiya and Mr. Timchenko, Western leaders are sending a tacit message that some of Mr. Putin’s personal wealth kept in the West is potentially in jeopardy.

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Juurd Eijsvoogel on the Crimea crisis

Juurd Eijsvoogel on the Crimea crisis

Hosted by Sarwar Kashmeri, the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions podcast series will headline issues together with the leaders whose decisions today will mold the foreign policy of tomorrow. Each podcast will tackle a different Great Decisions topic in the 2014 series, a list of which can be found here. The Great Decisions podcasts can also be found […]

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Moscow Takes Ukraine, Beijing Takes Mongolia?

Moscow Takes Ukraine, Beijing Takes Mongolia?

map: ChinaSmack Tensions escalated in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, as Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow separatist rebels, and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would invade. The Ukrainian action took place to recapture territory from the rebels, who have seized swaths of eastern Ukraine since April […]

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Fracking, U.S. Manufacturing, and Putin’s Crimea

Fracking, U.S. Manufacturing, and Putin’s Crimea

The Russian annexation of Crimea and the continued menacing of Ukraine has given rise to a rather surprising challenge. People are calling for the United States to step up the export of domestically produced oil and, especially, natural gas in order to save Ukraine. The call is not without a logical foundation. Ukraine—a highly inefficient […]

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Confronting Confrontation: Is the Isolation of Russia the Right Strategy?

Confronting Confrontation: Is the Isolation of Russia the Right Strategy?

In a New York Times op-ed last month entitled “Confronting Putin’s Russia,” Michael McFaul, the recently retired U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, channeled frustration over tensions in Crimea into a call for “isolating” Russia. His case, though passionate, appears to rely on some questionable assumptions and prescribes a rather shortsighted approach. Taking Responsibility McFaul begins by arguing that, “a […]

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Candid Discussions: Ian Bremmer on a Disengaged U.S. Foreign Policy

Candid Discussions: Ian Bremmer on a Disengaged U.S. Foreign Policy

In a wide-ranging discussion with Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association, Dr. Ian Bremmer discusses what he considers to be a disengaged foreign policy by the United States. On April 10, 2014 Dr. Bremmer will be speaking at the Foreign Policy Association on the world’s biggest political risks.  Dr. Ian Bremmer is the founder and […]

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Talking about a revolution. Is shale gas the answer?

Talking about a revolution. Is shale gas the answer?

Ever since Moscow decided to up the ante and invade the Crimean peninsula, shale gas reentered journalist lingo. Many have chipped in the debate, including Speaker of the House John Boehner who has argued that American gas is the sole remedy for Russia’s dominance of the European energy market. His diagnosis was that since natural […]

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Crimea or the Future of the Liberal World Order

Crimea or the Future of the Liberal World Order

If the 20th century was about an ideological fight between market-economy versus Communism, the 21st could very much be about liberal democracy versus imperialism. This could be the very lesson of Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Power politics is – even though it has never disappeared – now a reality that the EU and the U.S. […]

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Can Beijing Remain Neutral in the Ukrainian Conflict?

Can Beijing Remain Neutral in the Ukrainian Conflict?

As the Ukrainian crisis escalates, President Barack Obama has been busy making the diplomatic rounds trying to build support against the unilateral attempts by Crimea to break away from the new government in Ukraine. President Obama said the United States is examining a series of economic and diplomatic steps to “isolate Russia,” and he called […]

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Conflict, Investment and the Burden of Energy: Protests in Venezuela and Ukraine

Conflict, Investment and the Burden of Energy: Protests in Venezuela and Ukraine

There is always a danger in economies that are heavily dependent on one commodity to become states where conflict and power vacuums arise due to the concentration of power in one industry, and that industry having control of a large part of a national economy. External pressures for countries that are oil producers are the […]

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Ukraine Crisis Raises the Question of Defense Capabilities

Ukraine Crisis Raises the Question of Defense Capabilities

  The U.S. cannot address today’s Russian military threat against Ukraine without addressing what military resources we have to back our diplomacy and to deter hostile moves backed by force.  Currently, no U.S. discourse guides policy makers toward an answer. The public expects a strong defense when we are afraid or when we are outraged […]

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Crimea: The Alsace-Lorraine of the Black Sea

Crimea: The Alsace-Lorraine of the Black Sea

  This past weekend, Russian marines in unmarked uniforms (or possibly, but less likely, private contractors paid by Russia) seized the airports of Crimea, allowing Russian planes to fly troops into that autonomous region of Ukraine while large-scale Russian military maneuvers to the north distracted the Ukrainian army. The quick and somewhat stealthy action permitted […]

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China Hedges its Bets on Ukraine Crisis, Turns Unrest into CCP Propaganda

China Hedges its Bets on Ukraine Crisis, Turns Unrest into CCP Propaganda

As events unfold quickly in Ukraine, Russia’s increasingly close ally China is hedging its bets on an uncertain outcome. China has been quick to condemn U.S. and European involvement in Ukraine’s affairs, but has withheld judgment either for or against its ally Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propagandists have made […]

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Russia’s Incursion into Ukraine

Russia’s Incursion into Ukraine

Editor’s Note: Ian Bremmer is President of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading global political risk research and consulting firm. Dr. Bremmer is also Global Research Professor at the New York University (NYU) and author, most recently, of Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. by Ian Bremmer As Russia conducts direct […]

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Breaking Down Ukraine’s Breakdown

Breaking Down Ukraine’s Breakdown

In the past several months, the world has been gripped by the graphic political drama unfolding in Ukraine, but events have often unfolded so fast that it has been difficult to put them in context. And although the violence has stopped, the future of Ukraine is more uncertain than ever before. Here we’ll break down […]

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Foreign Policy Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks global developments on Great Decisions 2014 topics, daily. The FPB network is a production of the Foreign Policy Association.