The tense standoff between Russia and Ukraine continues to drag on, with European countries ramping up diplomatic efforts this week in an attempt to head off conflict.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sought to demonstrate that Berlin and Washington were on the same page, attempting to assuage doubters who have been calling Germany weak for failing to take a hard line with Russia.
The Yemen conflict is spilling further out of the war-torn country, posing a growing threat to U.S. military personnel and citizens in the Gulf region.
The United States is sending additional forces and equipment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following four Houthi missile and drone attacks on the country in January.
Russia has recently set its sights on the African continent, signing various political and military deals. Moscow’s renewed interest has been linked to the latest spate of coups as it seeks to gain a foothold.
In early January, hundreds of Russian military advisors were deployed to Mali. The contractors from the controversial Wagner Group were invited to “help Mali train its security forces,” according to the Malian army.
Over 1 million immigrants from the former Soviet Union live in Israel, and many are concerned about another war breaking out between Russia and Ukraine. Loyalties, however, aren’t as straightforward as you might imagine
The Ukraine crisis is a no-win situation for Israel, caught between America and Russia. But the impact of the crisis on Israel’s national security goes far further – taking in Iran, the Gulf and China
For most Israelis, Ukraine’s frigid, snow-shrouded expanses are far away, out of sight and out of mind.
Ukraine-Russia conflict: Biden needs to assure his Indo-Pacific allies that the United States is capable of managing simultaneous crises in both Europe and East Asia. So far, he’s doing it
In a matter of weeks or months, Joe Biden may face the perfect foreign policy storm: three crises in three places of strategic importance – Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East. If all goes badly, this convergence may generate tectonic shifts in the international system. If managed competently, it could reassert American supremacy, even if temporarily.
Israel faces a perfect storm of problems if Russia chooses large-scale military aggression against Ukraine, Israel’s quiet but critical partner
3,000 kilometers separate Jerusalem and Kyiv. And that distance is probably why most Israelis don’t know how much their normal everyday life is already connected to Ukraine, or how much of what they take for granted actually depends on peace and stability in Ukraine.
Hate crimes against Asian Americans mushroomed over the past two years. According to the Guardian, they jumped 567 percent in San Francisco since 2021, and you don’t have to look far to find out why. The main reason is, quite simply, incessant China-bashing in the mainstream media. This propaganda campaign was kicked off by Trump in his last year in office with absurd, dangerous and bombastic claims that China, perhaps deliberately, caused covid. The anti-China hysteria spread like measles. Now the American right-wing deploys Nazi tropes against the Chinese – a repulsive example was a January 25 Washington Times article headlined “Chinese Communist Party Termites Are Everywhere in the U.S.” With Nazi poison like this circulating through red-blooded American veins, can war fever be far behind?
The U.S. aim is to keep them from trading with China and Russia
The Iron Curtain of the 1940s and ‘50s was ostensibly designed to isolate Russia from Western Europe – to keep out Communist ideology and military penetration. Today’s sanctions regime is aimed inward, to prevent America’s NATO and other Western allies from opening up more trade and investment with Russia and China. The aim is not so much to isolate Russia and China as to hold these allies firmly within America’s own economic orbit. Allies are to forego the benefits of importing Russian gas and Chinese products, buying much higher-priced U.S. LNG and other exports, capped by more U.S. arms.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Brussels today for a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Their meeting follows a busy diplomatic week full of high-level meetings aimed at preventing the outbreak of war near the European Union’s borders. But with the week drawing to a close, it remains to be seen how much closer to a peaceful resolution of the crisis the parties have come.