Far from it. But the diplomacy of peace is in need of emergency resuscitation As a junior delegate to the Stockholm Conference on Confidence- and Security-building Measures and Disarmament in Europe in 1984-85, I had adopted the prevailing view that, with nuclear weapons in play, war in Europe was outmoded. That Stockholm dialogue was a…
Despite its recent minor successes in eastern Ukraine, the war is not going Russia’s way With the Russia-Ukraine War about to enter its second year and President Vladimir Putin increasingly frustrated at the demonstrable ineptitude of his army, navy and air force, the world community, whose members appear to be in denial about the risks…
But Russia is still taking in €640 million a day from the sale of fossil fuels Are the EU sanctions on Russian crude exports working? If yes, to what extent? The debate is on. No one can deny that the price cap and the European Union embargo on Russian oil have cut into Moscow’s revenue.…
That doesn’t mean the net-zero zealots will toss in the towel, of course Last year my year-end column, Fossil-fuel follies, hypocrisy and ignorance plague us all, focused on the bizarre impacts of the Great March Greenward by net-zero zealots intent on replacing the 84 per cent of global energy supplied by fossil fuels with electricity…
Could reduce its daily oil output by as much as seven per cent over the next few weeks Slowly but surely, Russia is unveiling its counter-strategy to the U.S.-led moves on the global energy chessboard. Returning the western ‘favour’ of putting a price cap on its crude oil sales for its Ukraine (mis)adventure, Russia –…
The divisions we believe exist between us are artificial Christmas is the time of year when human beings put aside their differences and come together. It is difficult to find a truer example of this essence of our character than during the first winter of the First World War. Ordinary soldiers on both sides of…
This is what happens when a government is driven by urban politics Ottawa recently announced that tariff revenues received from Canadian farmers who bought Russian/Belarusian fertilizers this year are being sent to Ukraine to rebuild infrastructure. Canada was the only G7 country to put tariffs on Russian and/or Belarusian fertilizer after Russia invaded Ukraine back…
But at least in the short term, Moscow may be able to ride off the challenge The U.S.-led western sanctions on Russian energy exports are now in force and beginning to have an impact. There are now tentative signs that the US$60 per barrel cap on crude exports from Russia is leading major oil tanker…
Russia following Iran’s playbook on how to skirt sanctions Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the United States, and the 27-nation European Union finally, but hesitantly, agreed last Friday to cap the price of Russian crude oil imports by other nations at US$60 per barrel. The EU embargo on importing Russian seaborne crude is in effect from…
And how to make it more resistant to drones and missile strikes As an academic who teaches risk management to an international student audience, I sometimes reflect on whether what I teach is relevant to solving real-world problems such as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, global warming, pandemic risk and regional conflict. Regarding the latter problem, specifically…