We have had to keep revising our interpretation of President Putin’s motives in Ukraine as each new threshold has been crossed in this crisis. And China’s Xi Jinping, always hard to second guess, is showing his hand more as events tumble over themselves. The two great dictators of the twenty-first century may each have come …
Continue reading Putin and Xi Jinping Flirt With the Attractions of a Wider European War
Some people say that fighting out of your skin is not really brave if there is no alternative. Perhaps. In Ukraine’s case it is magnificent all the same. Faced with Russian invading forces at least twice their size, and more now being drafted in by Moscow, the Ukrainians are fighting the Russians to something close …
Continue reading Fighting Out of Their Skins; the Ukrainian Response to Russia’s Invasion
President Putin seems to think more about hard power than the more subtle influences of soft power. He should think again. He threw away a big soft power advantage when he invaded Ukraine, and now it’s the force of soft power at its most effective that might finish him. Helen Ramscar outlines the issue. Exactly …
Continue reading Putin Fired The Wrong Shot: Make Vaccines Not War
No, Ukrainian forces can’t beat the Russians on the ground: but they can fight them to a standstill and then win politically. Michael Clarke explains. After fifteen days of war that was meant, at least in Moscow, to be over in three, it looks as if the Russians will soon begin to run out of …
Tipping Point 