If history tells us anything, it is that regional conflicts spread Those of us who believe we are in the foothills of a Third World War despair at western leaders’ complacency. On 13 Mar. 2023, Britain’s Foreign Secretary announced a derisory £5 billion increase to the UK’s defence budget, apparently ignorant of the fact that…
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…
The EU is split on the price to charge for Russian exports There are less than two weeks left, but the decision to cap Russian seaborne crude exports at a ‘certain price level’ still faces significant roadblocks. And the G7 and the European Union have not yet made a final decision as to the price…
History is replete with false flag operations The 2022 Russia-Ukraine war is being waged on the battlefield and in cyberspace. In the propaganda war, false flags abound. The term false flag describes either: An act of self-harm undertaken to cast an enemy in a bad light and garner sympathy and material support from allies, or…
Rodric Braithwaite’s book, Russia Myths and Realities, a perfect segue into Putin's brain Prior to the February invasion of Ukraine, my knowledge of Russian history pretty much started with the early 19th century. Everything before that was vague and fragmentary, enlivened only by titillating tales of Catherine the Great’s purported sexual appetite. But there’s much…
But our leaders are failing us, and they are putting all of our lives at risk
We are potentially living in the most dangerous time in history since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The world owes a great deal to American President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev who were able to back away from global nuclear destruction during that crisis through skillful negotiation. Reflecting on the event…
The Russian President likely anticipated his blitz would undermine Ukrainian morale. It didn't
In May 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin drove a truck across the Kerch Strait Bridge, the Russian Federation’s new link with Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. On Oct. 8, 2022, an improvised explosive device, possibly hidden inside a truck, was detonated on the bridge, bringing down a roadway and damaging a freight train.…
Limiting gas imports from Russia has thrust the country into its biggest energy crisis since the Second World War
Germany is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand is its decision to limit crude and gas imports from Russia. On the other, its industrial might is under threat. Berlin’s political decision to limit gas imports from Russia has thrust the country into its biggest energy crisis since the Second…
The West won’t dig itself out of the crisis unless it decisively responds to Putin’s strategic aim
The cost of living crisis is being misrepresented and mishandled by the political class. Misrepresented because only occasionally do politicians link the crisis to the Russia-Ukraine War and Putin’s use of hybrid warfare to destabilize the West; mishandled because, fundamentally, the solution lies not in economic measures but in ensuring first that Russia is defeated…
The world must awaken to the reality of Russian nuclear blackmail and terrorism
After the U.S. forces killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri last week, one of my friends texted me, “Putin is now the most dangerous terrorist on the planet.” It is difficult to disagree. While nearly 3,000 people had perished in the deadly 9/11 terrorist attacks, the number of civilian casualties in the Russian war of aggression…