Kadri Liik, European Council on Foreign Relations
Two decades on from his ascent to power, Putin cuts a lonely figure in a political desert
Mark Galeotti, Moscow Times
Opinion Despite Moscow's record protest, the Kremlin's position is still strong.
Duyeon Kim, Bulletin
North Korean missile tests coupled with a post-INF era isn't good news for Northeast Asia
Guy Chazan, Financial Times
On one side of the conflict are the more conventional conservatives, many of them disgruntled Christian Democrats who abandoned the CDU in protest at Ms Merkel's liberal policies, especially on immigration. On the other is the Wing, a hardline group led by Mr Kalbitz and Bjrn Hcke, one of Germany's most controversial politicians. A firebrand whose rhetorical style has been likened even by people in his own party to that of Joseph Goebbels, Mr Hcke, who is the AfD's leader in Thuringia... Читать дальше...
Paul Wiseman, The Diplomat
An agreement that once looked close now seems far off.
Philip Thompson, Washington Examiner
When U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross toured Latin America, President Trump hinted to reporters of his main mission: We're going to work on a free trade agreement with Brazil.
Nerima Wako-Ojiwa, The East African
Politicians are one day fighting a particular issue and the next they are in support of it.
Tom Gardner, The Atlantic
A dam built with Chinese money stopped the Omo River from flooding, altering the lives of more than half a million people.
Irvin Studin, Global Brief
Will America survive this century? How can it channel its most brilliant qualities and suppress its worst pathologies? What has it still to teach the world, and what must it learn to learn?
Jacopo Barigazzi & Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli, Politico EU
5 people who could thwart the Italian populist leader's bid to take control in a snap election.
Molly Crabapple, New York Review of Books
Puerto Rico is a colony, and as such, its government has only those powers the US Congress grants it. Puerto Rican legislators might protest the closing of their schools, the cutting of their pensions, or the gutting of the great university that has produced so many of the island's most subversive and iconic leaders, but ultimately, the Fiscal Control Board appointed by Congress overrule them. When I asked about what it would take to get rid of this junta... Читать дальше...
Shay Khatiri, National Review
John Gans's new book, White House Warriors, argues that the NSC is in desperate need of reform.
Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post
Tehran has read the American playbook and through its recent actions is attempting to assert power in the Persian Gulf, power beyond just the areas controlled by its coastal waters.
Mike Riggs, Reason
Science fiction writers have wondered for years what an all-encompassing surveillance state might look like. China decided to build it.
Kadri Gursel, Al Monitor
Turkey's purchase of Russian air defense systems comes as part of Ankara's efforts to obtain security and reassurance from Russia against the United States, which, it believes, was behind the 2016 coup attempt.
Dimitri Simes, National Interest
Russia is a dangerous adversary. But treating it as an outright enemy could result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, triggering mortal threats to its neighbors which otherwise may not be in the cards.
Jared Samuelson, War on the Rocks
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that winning a war in Europe is largely about landpower, not seapower. The U.S. Navy has little to contribute, so
Reuben Johnson, The Bulwark
In the early 1980s, there was, of course, no internet, no e-mail, no cell phones (much less smartphones), and not even many fax machines. Rebellions against dictatorship depended on age-old mechanisms to communicate the word of the opposition:
