Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Erdoğan Battles on Multiple Fronts in Risky Regional Power Bid
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, photo via Office of the President of RussiaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,510, March 30, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is at odds with just about everybody. He is on opposite sides with Russia in Syria as well as Libya and is trying the patience of his US and European allies. Turkey and...
Turkey’s Syria Intervention Serves Israeli Strategic Interests
Map of Idlib ceasefire as of March 6, 2020, map by OpenTopoMap and MilitaryMaps via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,508, March 29, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkey’s invasion of Syria to protect Idlib will bog it down in a war it cannot win. At the same time, it severely weakens the Assad regime and could help oust Iran...
The Deep State’s Demolition of Democracy
“Thank God for the Deep State,” declared former acting CIA chief John McLaughlin while appearing on a panel at the National Press Club last October. In 2018, the New York Times asserted that Trump’s use of the term “Deep State” and similar rhetoric “fanned fears that he is eroding public trust in institutions, undermining the idea of...
Coronavirus Delivers Another Devastating Blow to the Iranian Regime
Coronavirus patients at the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran, photo via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,507, March 27, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The coronavirus pandemic has hit Iran hard, and not only on the health front. The virus is the latest in a succession of blows to the Iranian regime’s domestic status,...
Jon Basil Utley – A Hero For Our Times
Jon Utley saved my life. While I hadn’t literally fallen into a well and had him pull me out, in a figurative sense that is exactly what he did. Having just spent most of the 1990s living and working abroad in Hungary, I found myself back in Washington, DC, in a well-known neoconservative think tank. It’s a long story, but much of...
Russia’s Prisoners-of-War
Discussion raises shared challenges faced by those in occupied territories.The plight of the hundreds of Georgian and Ukrainians illegally held by Russia was highlighted at an IWPR event in Tbilisi addressed by former detainees themselves. The meeting aimed at fostering a wider discussion around the respective conflicts and create more effective...
Coronavirus in the Middle East: Unlearned Lessons and Missed Opportunities
Disinfection of Sadeghiyeh, Iran, against coronavirus, photo via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,490, March 18, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: There is little indication that Middle Eastern rulers are learning any lessons from the devastating coronavirus. Nor is there any suggestion that they are willing to see the pandemic as an...
Russia’s Prisoners-of-War
Discussion raises shared challenges faced by those in occupied territories.The plight of the hundreds of Georgian and Ukrainians illegally held by Russia was highlighted at an IWPR event in Tbilisi addressed by former detainees themselves. The meeting aimed at fostering a wider discussion around the respective conflicts and create more effective...
The Long-Term Political Fallout of Coronavirus
3D medical animation still shot showing the structure of a coronavirus, image via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,488, March 17, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: As the coronavirus spreads, so does its likely political fallout. For authoritarians and autocrats, this is likely to be a mixed bag. Some will benefit from invasive tracing...
Russia’s Shift from “Greater Europe” to “Greater Asia”
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, photo via Office of the President of RussiaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,483, March 15, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Though analysts tend to portray Russia’s foreign policy as truly global (that is, independent of Europe, the US, and China), the country is plainly tilting toward Asia. The Russian political...
