Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

January 24, 2022

From Responsible Statecraft. The Russians want NATO to close its doors to Ukraine and all further expansion into Eastern Europe — this is the red line Moscow as declared. Quincy Institute senior fellow Anatol Lieven talks here about why the U.S. and NATO must decide whether denying Russia is worth the bloody conflict that it […]

Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams

January 24, 2022

The Biden Administration, followed by lapdog UK, appears determined to ratchet up tensions in Ukraine to the point where war is inevitable. From the publicity stunt of evacuating the US Embassy in Kiev to – laughably – accusing Moscow of planning a Ukraine coup, a Biden Administration sinking in public opinion quicksand appears to be […]

Daniel Larison

January 24, 2022

Peter Beinart makes an interesting observation about the way most U.S. policymakers understand “great power competition” with China and Russia: What prevails today in Washington’s halls of power is a defense of unipolarity dressed up as a recognition that unipolarity is dead. In both parties, top officials herald the return of great power competition but […]

Conflicts of Interest

January 24, 2022

On COI #220, Kyle Anzalone discusses the recent talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. While no deal was reached, the two diplomats were able to make progress on limited issues. However, after the talks ended, America resumed its hostile policy by promising more weapons to Ukraine.  Kyle breaks […]

Michael Averko

January 24, 2022

From a distance, one gets the impression that this past Friday’s face to face meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, could’ve been done over the phone. Both sides reiterated their differences and announced another meeting, with the Biden administration saying that it’ll soon provide a written answer […]

Walt Zlotow

January 23, 2022

According to the U.S. government and mainstream media, Russian President Putin woke up one morning and decided to invade Ukraine on the road to re-establishing former Soviet glory. This neatly fits US black hat / white hat caricature of the aggressive Russian Bear vs. peace loving American Liberty. Virtually no mention is made of legitimate […]

Gilbert Doctorow

January 23, 2022

Contrary to my expectations, the 90 minute meeting of Blinken and Lavrov in Geneva yesterday appears to have had some justification and ended with a slightly improved prognosis for resolution of the crises, both those at the borders of Ukraine and those in bilateral US-Russian relations over satisfaction of Russian demands that the security architecture […]

Winslow Myers

January 22, 2022

The corporate-military-political complex that continues to renew the arsenals of the nine nuclear nations represents a colossal failure of imagination.  Everyone knows that a nuclear war cannot be won, that the weapons are strategically useless, and that they are a catastrophic world-ending accident waiting to happen.  Everyone knows that the trillions spent on these weapons […]

Brett Wilkins

January 21, 2022

A group of 50 Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Thursday sent a letter to President Joe Biden focusing on the “inexcusable” number of noncombatants killed by drone strikes in the 20-year so-called War on Terror and urging his administration to “review and overhaul” American counterterrorism policy to “center human rights and the protection of civilians.” “The […]

Daniel Larison

January 21, 2022

A Saudi coalition airstrike on a prison killed at least 60 people and wounded at least 100 more in northern Yemen as part of the coalition’s reprisal attacks after the Houthis claimed drone and missile attacks that hit targets in Abu Dhabi earlier this week: At least three children are among the dozens of people […]