Recent Posts

The Sources of Russian Misconduct

A Diplomat Defects From the Kremlin For three years, my workdays began the same way. At 7:30 a.m., I woke up, checked the news, and drove to work at the Russian mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva. The routine was easy and predictable, two of the hallmarks of …

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Is Xi Jinping China’s new Mao Zedong?

With Xi casting himself as a 21st-century Mao, China risks ‘arbitrary rule’. Vastness is a defining feature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It has more than 96 million members, and the party’s official list of heroes and martyrs counts two million names of those remembered for their storied lives …

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High stakes gamble: Putin’s tactical nuclear options

With Russia’s reputation as a great military power in tatters, could President Vladimir Putin resort to nuclear weapons? Since February’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have suffered setback after setback on the battlefield, leaving President Vladimir Putin fewer choices if Russia wants to extract itself from what increasingly looks like …

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