Section: Harvard International Review (USA)
How Important Would a Post-Sanctions Russia Be for EU Foreign Trade?
The leaders of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine meet for a summit. By Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Over the last few months, several European politicians and business leaders have called for a partial or full lifting of the EU’s economic sanctions against Moscow. More often than not, these voices fail to specify the...
Information Wars: Ukraine and the West vs. Russia and the Rest
In the media battle between the West and Russia over what really has been going on in Ukraine, round one went to Russia — at least among audiences in former Soviet Union republics. Pro-Russian protesters remove a Ukrainian flag and replace it with a Russian flag in front of the Donetsk Oblast Regional State Administration building in March of...
Propaganda and Censorship: Adapting to the Modern Age
By Mark Fahey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The role of propaganda and censorship is not as obvious as it may seem. From the infamous propaganda arm of North Korean government to the state-run media organizations in China and Russia, it is clear that the mechanisms and effectiveness of propaganda and censorship vary widely. During the height...
Political Risk Insurance for FDI in Ukraine: How the Eastern European Pivot State Can Be Saved
Ukrainian and European Union flags fly in Kiev, by Evgeny Feldman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. European misconceptions of the Ukranian-Russian conflict are the result, among others, of a lack of expert knowledge about Ukraine, among the member states of the European Union. The most recent example of continued misunderstanding is a Western...
The Putinverstehers’ Misconceived Charge of Russophobia: How Western Apology for the Kremlin’s Current Behavior Contradicts Russian National Interests
Russian President Vladimir Putin at his inauguration in 2012, by Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. A frequent rebuttal by apologists of Putin’s policies, in debates on Western approaches to Eastern Europe, is the allegation of Russophobia. Interpreters of contemporary Russian affairs, who present themselves as Putinversteher...
Doing “the Most Difficult Job in the World”: The UN Secretary-General in the Past, Present and Future
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, but will also be a time of transition for the organization. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) come to an end this year, an occasion that calls for critical reflection as the United Nations prepares to launch the MDGs’ successors, the Sustainable Development...
Russia Today: Who Will Stop the Barbarian?
The apparent democratic reforms in Russia of the 1980’s and 1990’s were only an undercover tool used at the hands of the KGB and the former Soviet bureaucracy to gain political power and to appropriate former state property of the USSR under the pretense of privatization. With the completion of this appropriation, the need for...
War Through Photography – Ukraine
Photographers Caimi and Paccinni traveled into Ukraine to capture the war in images. There, they found a conflict occurring in multiple stages and made these stages into a series: War Dreams, War Games, War Scars. The aesthetics and emotions intertwined with every image give a different perspective on the war. Their imagery provides a visual...
My Enemy’s Enemy: Analyzing Russia and North Korea’s “Year of Friendship”
This May marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. To celebrate, Russian officials announced in March that the year 2015 would be a “Year of Friendship” between the nations of North Korea and Russia. Accordingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to Moscow to celebrate the...
