Recent Posts

China’s Ukraine Crisis

What Xi Gains—and Loses—From Backing Putin The crisis in Ukraine is exposing the limits of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. Beijing’s global aspirations are now clashing with its desire to remain selectively ambiguous and aloof. Although Chinese leaders may not recognize it, their country’s closer alignment with Russia is …

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The Price of Order

Settling for Less in the Middle East There is no question that the Middle East is a mess. The usual explanations for the disarray, however, fail to capture the root cause. Sectarianism, popular discontent with unrepresentative governments, economic failure, and foreign interference are the usual suspects in most analyses, but …

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Germany freezes Nord Stream 2 gas project as Ukraine crisis deepens

Europe’s most divisive energy project, worth $11 billion, was finished in September. Germany on Tuesday halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany, after Russia formally recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. Europe’s most divisive energy …

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Russia’s Lavrov questions Ukraine’s right to sovereignty

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday questioned whether Ukraine had a right to sovereignty because he said the government in Kyiv did not represent the country’s constituent parts, the Interfax news agency reported. “If we talk about the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity, one of the key documents …

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