Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Russia returns: Navigating U.S.-Russia relations
What’s going on with Russia? Managing U.S.-Russian relations is one of the most important priorities for any American administration. Russia is an active player in key global issues, and with its enormous nuclear arsenal, is the only foreign state that represents a true existential threat to the United States. And yet, the relationship...
BICC Annual Report 2019 Research in the field and advisory activities in regions with ever-changing violent conflict settings
In his foreword to BICC Annual Report 2019, Professor Herbert Wulf, founding director of BICC from 1994 to 2001, praises the development of the peace and conflict research institute that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year: “BICC has risen to the new challenges and developed diverse, practice-oriented research and advisory projects”. With...
Putin’s Policies Are Not New
Meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, photo via Office of the President of RussiaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,329, October 30, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: It has become fashionable to link Russian foreign policy moves of the past 20 years solely to President Vladimir Putin and his close associates. But what is viewed as innovative...
Lebanon Color Revolt? Back To Syria… Impeachment Blues.
Today’s Liberty Report will rip three top stories from the headlines and break down what the mainstream media is not reporting on them. What’s really going on as Lebanon’s government continues to melt away in the face of sustained protests? What’s the new US goal in Syria and what is the chance of achieving it? And...
The Purge of John Bolton
John Bolton, photo by Gage Skidmore via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,327, October 29, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In Syria, President Trump, like Obama before him, seems oblivious to the reality that when the US withdraws, its enemies advance and fill the vacuum. Ousted NSA John Bolton has said that America is constraining its range...
Trump cancels the pullout from Syria then flip-flops, threatens war with Turkey and gives money to terrorists
The long nightmare in Syria might finally be coming to an end, but not thanks to the United States and the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump’s boast that “this was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else” was as empty as all the other rhetoric coming out of the White House over the past two and a half...
In the Aegean, Energy Sustainability = Increased Security
Tasos Aliferis, Tilos, Greece, photo via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,325, October 28, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The challenging geography of Greece makes it hard for the country to take full advantage of its natural resources and expand its energy grid. Though it has doubled its share of renewables, it needs to redouble those...
Clarity Amidst Chaos: The Implications of Trump’s Syria Policy
President Donald Trump, US Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Tony Harp – released via Air Force Special Operations CommandBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,324, October 27, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The American withdrawal from Syria has produced chaotic results – but as with many aspects of President Trump’s presidency, it...
The Power of Civic Engagement: What Europeans can learn from Americans
Recently, my husband, myself, and our three-year-old daughter had a vacation together with 10 other family members and friends. We had only one family with a child in the group. The group made all decisions concerning the group activities by simply voting. Most of the times our small family did not take part in the group fun as no one voted to...
The Art of the Back-Pedal
It is a hallmark of right-wing populists to make a preposterous policy and then be forced — by opposition, by circumstance, by the laws of physics — to retreat. Three very recent examples involve Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The backpedaling might look very similar in all three cases,...