Rym Momtaz, Politico EU
PARIS — The EU's working language may still be English, but the bloc is thinking a lot more in French.
Harish Damodaran, Indian Express
It is the rural middle class — which experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall — that's at the forefront of the agitation against the farm reform laws.
E. Finkel, J. Azarieva & Y. Brudny, PONARS Eurasia
(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo) In late 2020, food prices and the Russian citizens' access to staple foods have emerged as one of Putin's main concerns. Over the last year, the price of pasta went up by 10 percent, sunflower oil by 24 percent, and sugar by more than 70 percent. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an average Russian family
Assal Rad, Responsible Statecraft
February 11 marks the 42nd anniversary of the Iranian revolution of 1979, which ousted a despotic monarch and ushered in what many Iranians hoped would be the independence and freedom they had fought to attain for so long. These hopes were not fulfilled, however, and under the Islamic Republic, Iranians have had to continue their fight for freedom.
Daniel Davis, RealClearWorld
On Jan. 22, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart that the Biden Administration would assess whether the Taliban are living up to their commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups. While such an assessment is entirely reasonable for an incoming Administration, it must...
Kirill Semenov, Al Monitor
On Feb. 5, members of the UN-led Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) voted on interim leadership for its executive council, selecting Mohammad Younes Menfi as chairman of the Presidency Council and Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah as interim prime minister. The outcome of the vote by the 74-member forum came as a big surprise to external sponsors of the Libyan peace process...
Branko Milanovic, Foreign Affairs
A New Oligarchy Can Be Restrained Only by the Government That Made It.
Gustavo Bazzan, Worldcrunch
BUENOS AIRES — Amid anxiety in Argentina over the state of the country's main oil firm, YPF — with problems of debt, management and an uncertain future under a socialist government — people are inevitably making comparisons with Venezuela's Petróleos de Venezuela, (PDVSA) another South American energy giant that was a victim of politicized mismanagement.
V. Frolov, Moscow Times
"Forgive the United States, ignore France and punish Germany," is Russia's newfound motto as pressure on the country rises.
Andrei Kolesnikov, Project Syndicate
Since arresting Alexei Navalny on his return from Germany and hastily packing him off to prison, the Russian authorities have turned the country's politics into a binary affair: you are either with Navalny or with President Vladimir Putin. And that is a contest that Putin is no longer confident he can win.
Timothy Mclaughlin, The Atlantic
The military's takeover in Myanmar has prompted a reevaluation of the armed forces' role in society—something that an alleged genocide notably failed to do.
Bowers & Hiim, WOTR
In August 2020, South Korea's defense minister revealed that his country had "succeeded in developing a ballistic missile with sufficient range and the world's largest warhead weight to protect peace on the Korean Peninsula." The new "Frankenmissile" is part of Seoul's conventional counterforce and countervalue strategy, which is meant to hold North Korea's nuclear weapons infrastructure, as well as its leadership, at risk independently...
Richard Bernstein, RCI
The FBI last month arrested Gang Chen, a well-known MIT nanotechnologist, and charged the China-born naturalized American with concealing close and lucrative connections to China's scientific and technological establishment on his applications for federal research grants.
Rand Paul, National Interest
I have continuously led the fight to reassess our foreign policy, to end our "forever war," and bring our fighting forces home.
Russia Matters
North Korea's recent nuclear test and Iran's refusal to stop its program to enrich uranium—potentially to weapons grade—highlight the fact that the world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era. Most alarmingly, the likelihood that non-state terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weaponry is increasing. In today's war waged on world order by terrorists, nuclear weapons are the ultimate means of mass devastation. And non-state terrorist groups with nuclear... Читать дальше...
