Wall Street Journal
American Enterprise Senior Fellow John Bolton on whether the Russian leader’s retreat is a sign of strength or weakness.
Timothy Garton Ash, Guardian
Why did you come to Germany and not Italy? I ask Jawad, a skinny 16-year-old from Afghanistan, standing outside his family’s blanket-tented six square metres of home at an emergency refugee reception centre in an east Berlin sports hall. Six months ago he spoke no German, but now he replies without hesitation: “Italien hat kein Geld!” Italy has no money! Short and to the point.
Roger Cohen, New York Times
For any believer in the trans-Atlantic alliance, liberal interventionism and the overall beneficence of American power, President Obama’s long exposition of his foreign policy to Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic made for pretty depressing reading.
Economist
Look closer, however, and Russias victory rings hollow. Islamic State (IS) remains. The peace is brittle. Even optimists doubt that diplomacy in Geneva will prosper (see article). Most important, Mr Putin has exhausted an important tool of propaganda. As our briefing explains, Russias president has generated stirring images of war to persuade his anxious citizens that their ailing country is once again a great power, first in Ukraine and recently over the skies of Aleppo. The big question... Читать дальше...
Emmanuel Grynszpan, Le Temps
MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin's decision to withdraw the lion's share of Russia's troops from Syria might have come as a surprise, but insiders in Moscow say the timing makes perfect sense.
Robert Leiken, National Interest
We have converted the world’s most powerful nation into a beguiled, bloodied and broke Don Quixote. If Americans are as deluded as he, it is not because they overdosed on obsolete tales of chivalry. Instead, they have misread the region through the outdated astigmatic spectacles of a sensationalist media.
R. Santhanam & S. Yamunan, The Hindu
On March 13, 22-year-old V. Shankar and his 19-year-old wife Kausalya were attacked by a five-member gang in broad daylight in Udumalpet, in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district. Dozens of bystanders remained spectators as Sankar was hacked to death, and a battered Kausalya too left in a pool of blood. The young woman survived the attack.
D. Rothkopf, Foreign Policy
Love is perhaps the greatest source of power, far outstripping the cash, weapons systems, or institutional authority on which the so-called “powerful” rely. I’m not just talking about how it ranks in terms of the arithmetic of day-to-day power, but about how love motivates more actions, conflicts, disputes, and resolutions than political decrees or armed initiatives ever have. On that microscale, love perpetuates the species, binds families and communities together... Читать дальше...
Mac Margolis, Bloomberg View
It's getting hard to keep up with the rolling political crisis that's steadily engulfing Latin America's biggest nation. On Wednesday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff named former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as her new chief of staff. It was a bold move that seemed calculated not so much to help Brazil through troubled times as to prop up her own enfeebled presidency and throw a lifeline to her tarnished political mentor.
Nicola Abe, Der Spiegel
Netanyahu is shaping present-day Israel to a greater degree than anyone else. The country has distanced itself from its Western partners and has shifted far to the right. Netanyahu violated a political taboo when he brought The Jewish Home, a party that primarily represents settlers, into his government. The move sent a message: against peace and against hope for a two-state solution.
Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch
The nuances of foreign policy do not feature heavily in the ongoing presidential campaign. Every candidate intends to “destroy” the Islamic State; each has concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korea, and China; every one of them will defend Israel; and no one wants to talk much about anything else -- except, in the case of the Republicans, who rattle their sabers against Iran.
Anne Applebaum, Slate
The crisis facing Merkel is not, therefore, the one that most headline writers imagine: Her country still backs her. But the rest of the continent doesn’t. Not for the first time, she is confronted with a deep gap between the Germans and everyone else. The test for her now is not at home but abroad: Can she think like a European leader rather than just a German one, and find a solution that suits everyone else?
Alex Oliver, Foreign Affairs
The embassy, at least in its traditional form, is facing an existential crisis. The global transformations of the twenty-first century have dramatically changed the way nations practice diplomacy. The rise of digital communications, diminishing resources, and growing security threats all raise the question of whether the traditional embassy is still relevant.
Cameron Hobbs, Ramen IR
Australia’s reinvigorated emphasis on its naval programs is by far the most expensive and consequential. The 2016 DWP restores targets to purchase 9 future frigates, 12 patrol vessels – and most importantly – 12 submarines to replace the Collins class (up from a previous 8). A fleet of 12 submarines means roughly 6-8 submarines can be deployed at any time. This improvement will allow Australia to make a meaningful contribution to U.S. strategy, which includes deterring conflict over disputed territory... Читать дальше...
Maxim Trudolyubov, Wilson Center
So did Russia actually leave? Even during the announcement itself, Putin pointed out that Russia’s naval facility in Tartus and the airbase of Khmeimim will stay operational, as before. The Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov said on Tuesday that Russia would take every measure to protect the personnel and equipment remaining in Syria. “We have achieved some positive results. We now have a chance to put an end to years of violence. But it is too early to speak of a victory over terrorism. Читать дальше...
Waleed Aly, Canberra Times
If you're walled out in America, there's a good chance you're presently waving Trump placards. That's not merely an American phenomenon so much as a quintessentially American expression of a global one. To see that we need only glance at the biggest story in these parts: Britain's serious flirtation with leaving the European Union.
Kevin Lees, Suffragio
Donald Trump’s campaign to ‘Make America Great Again’ may be associated with halting immigration from Mexico or making deals with China, Russia or Japan. But a Trump administration might bring another country to the forefront of international relations.
