Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Evaluating Harper’s Office of Religious Freedom
With the federal election days away, and the spotlight on the current government’s accomplishments and follies, an unprecedented initiative of Prime Minister Stephen Harper comes to mind: the Office of Religious Freedom (ORF), which was announced in February 2013 at Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in Toronto. Deemed a positive step forward...
How Can Anyone Still Be An Interventionist?
Given the ongoing disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and the rest of the Middle East, how can anyone in his right mind still be an interventionist? Look at Iraq. The US invasion and multi-year occupation of that country was supposed to bring a paradise of peace, prosperity, and harmony to the country. That’s what killing...
A ‘Royal Rumble’ in Syria means yet more chaos for civilians
Uneasy allies? Alexei Druzhinin/REUTERSAs a child, I would eagerly await the annual World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) “Royal Rumble” – 30 of the best wrestlers, all in one ring, fighting it out in a lengthy and often brutal (and yes, scripted) affair over the course of hours to be the last man standing. The most entertaining part, I found,...
Why Crimea’s Blockade is Necessary
Since September 20, Crimean Tatar activists and other protesters—mostly from the Right Sector—have been blockading the flow of goods from mainland Ukraine to Crimea. The Kyiv government has neither formally supported nor criticized the move. The reaction among analysts, observers, and bloggers has been mixed—from enthusiasm to caution and even...
MH-17 Final Report: Who Shot Down The Plane?
The long-awaited final report of the Dutch Safety Board on the 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 over Ukraine came out yesterday, but it offered very little in terms of what actually happened. With the most powerful intelligence apparatus on earth, how is it that the US cannot bring forth evidence to back its claims about Russian...
Made in Moscow: Religious Freedom Abuses Continue in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine
“We cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated,” US President Barack Obama said on September 28 at the UN General Assembly. He was condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its aggressive moves in eastern Ukraine.Much of the world has decried these acts and their most...
Europe On the Edge Again
Could the Baltic states‘ stance on Russia be adopted by the EU after testing times? …read more Source: Transitions Online...
For Decentralization to Work, Reformers Must Support Legislation for Strong Local Governance
As the August 31 grenade attacks, rioting, and violent protests at Ukraine’s Parliament—the Verkhovna Rada—demonstrated quite literally, the Ukrainian decentralization effort is an explosive issue. Constitutional amendments granting local communities greater governing responsibilities have sparked widespread criticism, both in Ukraine and...
The New McCarthyism
Cold War II is upon us. Once again, to write the phrase “the Kremlin” is to evoke images of an Oriental despotism both ominous and inscrutable, only slightly less sinister than the Dark Tower. Russia, once thought to have been liberated from its Soviet chains, is now the new Mordor. And, of course, Vladimir Putin is the new Sauron: cunning,...
Russia Slams Dutch MH17 Report
Aviation Authority calls for new UN probe as Buk missile-maker releases report blaming Ukraine. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
