U.S.-Russian hostilities have the potential to impact the U.S.’ re-balance to the region to counter China. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, Japan has renewed its own outreach efforts to Russia. These efforts have lessons for the U.S. with respect to overcoming unproductive rhetoric and soberly recognizing shared security interests in arguably the most important geopolitical region of the future.
Analysis
Totalitarian tendencies in post-Maidan Ukraine (OpenDemocracy)
In post-Maidan Ukraine, temnyky, arrests and censorship have become commonplace. What’s more, repression against dissidents and even murder have become socially acceptable…To be fair, it should be noted that justifications of violence and murder of “enemies” have not been accepted by society as a whole – only by one segment of social media, the mass media and those who call themselves “Maidan activists”
On GPS: Understanding the new Cold War (feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
Fareed Zakaria digs into heightened tensions between U.S. and Russia with ACEWA Board Member and NYU professor emeritus Stephen Cohen and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius
Germany Warns of the Danger of War (George Friedman)
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Oct. 8 that the situation between the U.S. and Russia today is more dangerous than it was during the Cold War. As he put it, “It’s a fallacy to think that this is like the Cold War. The current times are different and more dangerous.”
Turning a Blind Eye towards Armageddon: US leaders reject the nuclear winter studies (Dr. Steven Starr)
Scientists warn of the existential danger of nuclear war. Ten years ago, the world’s leading climatologists chose to reinvestigate the long-term environmental impacts of nuclear war. The peer-reviewed studies they produced are considered to be the most authoritative type of scientific research, which is subjected to criticism by the international scientific community before its final publication in scholarly journals. No serious errors were found in their studies. [Read more…] about Turning a Blind Eye towards Armageddon: US leaders reject the nuclear winter studies (Dr. Steven Starr)
A normal week in the British press (Paul Robinson)
Probably the most influential weekly political magazines in the United Kingdom are The Economist, The Spectator, and The New Statesman. All have published their latest editions in the last couple of days. Here are the results.
VIDEO: The State of U.S.-Russia Relations (Council on Foreign Relations, feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
ACEWA Board Member and Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen, The Brookings Institution’s Fiona Hill and Columbia University Professor Emeritus Robert Legvold discuss the current state of relations between the United States and Russia, including cooperation on strategic initiatives in Syria, tensions surrounding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the post–Cold War expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and recent allegations of Russian-sponsored cyberattacks.
Washington’s New Lock-Step March of Folly (Robert Parry)
Confident in a Hillary Clinton victory, Washington’s foreign policy elite is readying plans for more warfare in Syria and more confrontations with nuclear-armed Russia, an across-the-spectrum “group think” that risks life on the planet, says Robert Parry.
Compare the coverage of Mosul and East Aleppo and it tells you a lot about the propaganda we consume (Patrick Cockburn)
Destruction in Aleppo by Russian air strikes is compared to the destruction of Grozny in Chechnya sixteen years ago, but, curiously, no analogy is made with Ramadi, a city of 350,000 on the Euphrates in Iraq, that was 80 per cent destroyed by US-led air strikes in 2015.
Russia and the West have ‘entered a new Cold War’ (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph understands the Kremlin has already made a decision to cut off diplomacy at least until after the Nov 8 US elections, in the hope of striking up a more “sincere” relationship with Barack Obama’s successor.
The Slide Toward War With Russia (The Nation)
The Nation has long argued that “no modern precedent exists for the shameful complicity of the American political-media elite” in the rush to a new Cold War. As German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier recently observed, “It is an illusion to believe this is the old Cold War. The new times are different; they are more dangerous.”
Stop this stupid sabre-rattling against Russia (The Spectator)
I have been wondering these last few weeks whether it would be cheaper to excavate a basement and buy a Geiger counter and iodine tablets, or emigrate to New Zealand. Call me frit, but I don’t like the way things are heading
Putin’s Response Options To U.S. Cyber Attack (Jeffrey Carr)
We already have enough real problems with Russia in Syria and Ukraine. Someone, maybe Russian, has embarrassed the Democrats but there’s no hard proof as to who’s responsible. And the bottom line is that the DNC bears at least some of that responsibility no matter who attacked them.
PODCAST: Did the White House Declare War on Russia? (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Cohen reports that a statement by Vice President Joe Biden on NBC’s Meet the Press on October 16, released on October 14, stunned Moscow (though it was scarcely noted in the American media).
Paul Robinson Reviews The New Politics of Russia
Given the hyperbolic hysteria which characterizes so much analysis of Russia, it is good to come across a book which studiously avoids all that and instead calls for ‘a sophisticated, empathetic understanding of Russia and how it works.’
NYT’s Absurd New Anti-Russian Propaganda (Robert Parry)
The New York Times is so determined to generate hate against Russia that it has lost all journalistic perspective, even portraying Russia’s military decoys – like those used in World War II – as uniquely evil, writes Robert Parry.