Section: Harvard International Review (USA)
Another Forgotten War: The Lack of a Western Response to the Ukrainian Conflict
Soldiers and military equipment on the move in Eastern Ukraine. Photo courtesy of the OSCE. From accusations that the Kremlin ordered the hacks of the Democratic National Convention servers to condemnations of ruthless Russian airstrikes on rebel-held Aleppo, there is certainly no shortage of foreign affairs conversations revolving around Russia....
The Nuclear Fallout of Trump’s Possible Détente with Putin
A Russian tank participates in military exercises in 2013. Photo via kremlin.ru, CC BY-SA 4.0. While the new US administration should be looking for areas of cooperation with Russia where possible, it should do so without compromising the United States’ principled stance on Ukraine. Any such compromise will have grave repercussions not only...
NATO’s Baltic Problem: How Populism, Russia, and the Baltic Can Fracture NATO
British Artillery defense systems deployed to Estonia in service of NATO. Photo by Laura Bullas. OGL, accessed via Wikimedia Commons. Over the past few years, a series of internal and external challenges have checked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bullying of Russia’s neighbors. Western economic sanctions inflicted serious harm on...
Negotiating with the Kremlin: Considerations for Future US Policy towards Russia
Michael McFaul is the Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He served five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Eurasia at the National...
Adapting to the Evolving Strategic Environment – Applying the Lessons of the Global War on Terror to Future Threats
Army Spc. Grant Richardson stands guard duty in a tower at Forward Operating Base Hieder in the Ninewa Province town of Rabi’ah, Iraq, on June 30, 2005. Photo taken by Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert M. Schalk, U.S. Navy, accessed via Wikimedia Commons. A career in the US Army in the last fifteen years has mostly centered on the fight...
Russia and the West: Russia’s Recent Assertiveness, Western Response, and What the Future May Hold
A pro-Russian soldier stands next to a tank in Perevalne, Ukraine on March 14, 2014. Photo credit: AP Images. In late February 2014, when the Kalashnikov-wielding “little green men” appeared—apparently out of thin air—and started the takeover of government buildings, airports, and other strategic locations in the Ukrainian Crimea Peninsula, the...
Ukraine Introduces State Financing for Political Parties: A Promising Reform or Cosmetic Change?
A man prepares to vote in elections in Kyiv in 2015. Photo by Sandro Weltin for the Council of Europe. CC BY-ND 2.0. Since the victory of the so-called “Revolution of Dignity” in 2014, Ukraine has been going through an exceptionally complicated transition process. The post-Soviet country has been trying to execute parallel fundamental reforms in...
How Could the United States Benefit from the Reforms in Ukraine?
The energy production at Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in Ukraine represents one of the many possibilities for US-Ukraine collaboration. By Maxim Razin. CC-BY-SA-3.0, accessed via Wikimedia Commons. After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, the United States sought to establish diplomatic relations with the new nation in order to encourage a...
Why the EU Should Decouple Sanctions Against Russia from the Minsk Agreements
The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine in Minsk for February 2015 talks. By Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Almost two years have passed since the European Union and a number of other countries introduced, on July 31, 2014, the third and most consequential round of economic and other sanctions against Russia....
Choosing Sides in Serbia: Neutral or NATO?
Russia’s media are currently in a lather about their nation’s old friend Serbia becoming too chummy with the old adversary NATO. The mystery is: why? For all sorts of reasons, both domestic and diplomatic, Serbia is showing absolutely no hint of wanting to join NATO. It does want to join the European Union. Oddly, in a purely UK...
