Section: Atlantic Council (USA)
Europe Still in Denial as Russia Ushers in the Age of Hybrid Hostilities
European leaders will gather in June to discuss whether to extend sanctions against Russia over the Kremlin’s hybrid war in Ukraine. The current sanctions regime will likely remain in place, but the mere fact the subject is up for debate is evidence of Europe’s alarming refusal to acknowledge the new security reality facing the...
Europe’s Humanitarian Fatigue Threatens to Engulf Ukraine
Earlier this month, Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, presidents of the European Commission and Parliament, respectively, published an appeal for continental solidarity in which they criticized “anyone who believes that the time of the nation-state has come” as “out of touch with reality.”The inaccuracy of Juncker and Schulz’s...
The Many Hopes of Nadiya Savchenko
“I’ve been in a prison cell for two years, I’m not used to people, so I am sorry if I sound harsh,” said Nadiya Savchenko as throngs of journalists and well-wishers crowded around her at Kyiv’s Boryspil airport on May 25.Captured in Ukraine, transferred secretly to Russia where she was tried and sentenced to twenty-two years in...
Savchenko’s Return May Unleash Political Earthquake in Ukraine
It has finally happened. Nadiya Savchenko is back in Ukraine.The female pilot, who was captured in Ukraine and illegally brought to Russia on falsified charges, became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance against Russian efforts to destabilize the country.A Russian court sentenced Savchenko to twenty-two years for killing two Russian journalists in...
Ukraine Could Join the European Union by 2030
Following the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine has taken big political and economic steps forward. Today, we need to assess what has been accomplished and what Ukraine should achieve in the next fifteen years. The nation needs to set ambitious goals, aiming for an average economic growth rate of 6-7 percent a year. That kind of growth is possible...
Why Ukraine’s Gutsy, Bright, and Articulate Reformers Are Optimistic
“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. . . . We must have patience till luck turns,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1798.Jefferson wrote this observation to a friend thirteen years after the Revolutionary...
Ukraine’s Parliament Is Getting a Facelift, but Will it Make a Difference?
The newly elected Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy, wasted no time in announcing a series of internal reforms for the Ukrainian parliament, which has long been the most hated institution of public life. In the latest International Republican Institute (IRI) poll, 88 percent of Ukrainians viewed the institution unfavorably....
Reconciliation Will Be Ukraine’s Next Serious Battle with Russia
Until very recently, Ukrainians predominantly spoke a language of identities, differentiating between people from western Ukraine and people from the eastern part of the country, Ukrainian speaking versus Russian speaking, Greek Catholics versus Orthodox. But what was powerfully witnessed during the Euromaidan was the emergence of a new modality...
Memo to Ukraine and the West: Beware of Unrealistic Peace Plans. The Kremlin Will Outplay You Every Time
The latest Normandy Four meeting on May 11 in Berlin did not result in any major breakthroughs to end the stalemate in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine agreed to create demilitarized zones in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine, enhance information-sharing, and halt military exercises along the contact line, but these steps will not break the...
Why Sweden Still Hasn’t Joined NATO
Sweden is one of Europe’s fiercest critics of Russia’s actions against Ukraine, but NATO membership is out for now US President Barack Obama just hosted the leaders of the countries that he wishes the rest of the world would emulate. During the Nordic-United States summit, the president had a chance to repeat to his Scandinavian...
