Ukraine

Ukraine: Civil Society in the Balance

On January 19, 2014, future Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk called before a crowd gathered in the winter chill of Kyiv’s Maidan for “a government of popular trust, which will be able to bring the country into the European Union...

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Moldova and Ukraine: Diverging Neighbors?

To a casual observer, Moldova and Ukraine appear quite similar with their common Soviet histories, heavily corrupt domestic politics, and a frozen conflict on their eastern borders. However, while Ukraine remains entrapped in a war with Russia over eastern...

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Frozen Conflicts Put Solutions on Ice

With the U.S. presidential elections and flurry of executive orders coming from the Trump administration, many seem to have forgotten about the protracted conflicts in Eastern Europe. This is the nature of frozen conflicts. They continue simmering even as...

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Darker Shades of Gray: Why Gray Zone Conflicts Will Become More Frequent and Complex

The United States has long fielded the world’s most capable armed forces. It spends more on its military than the next nine nations combined, of which five are U.S. treaty allies. It fields more active-duty military personnel than...

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Crimea and the Art of Non-Recognition: A Baltic Analogy

Throughout his campaign, transition, and brief tenure in the White House, President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to repair ties with Vladimir Putin and Russia. One potential requirement for a “reset” may involve recognition of...

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What Does Russia Want From President Trump?

As the Trump administration begins to formulate its policies, it is clear that both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin want to improve ties between Moscow and Washington. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev correctly described U.S.-Russia relations as having hit...

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Why the Black Sea?

When Americans think about the world, they divide it into discrete regions: Europe, spanning from Norway to Greece; the Middle East, stretching from Morocco to Iran; and the Asia-Pacific, covering Japan through Indonesia, or sometimes even to India. This...

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Five Major Challenges Putin’s Russia Will Have to Face in 2017

The Majalla Throughout 2016 Russia made frequent headlines on most global news sites. This infamy was a result of Russia’s aggressive foreign policies. In addition to its belligerent actions in Ukraine which started in 2014, Russia’s image as an...

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Trump, Putin, and the Art of Appeasement

The Atlantic Donald Trump’s Russia strategy is based on making a series of one-sided concessions in the hopes of luring Moscow into a more positive global relationship. There’s a name for this approach: appeasement. A man who ran for...

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The U.S.-Russia Relationship: Trump Can’t Fix It, but He Can’t Break It, Either

Over the past several months, much has been made of President-elect Donald Trump’s attitude toward and connections with Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin. Some observers have charged that Trump is naïve about Putin’s real objectives and have implied...

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