Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Neta Crawford (Boston University, Costs of War Project) talk about the cost of the forever wars and the role empathy (or lack thereof) plays in foreign policy.
Happy President’s Day From ACURA
The American Committee for US-Russia Accord: PODCAST with Anatol Lieven and James W. Carden
The international relations scholar and author Anatol Lieven joins James W. Carden for a brief but illuminating discussion on US-Russian affairs, and the role of historical memory plays in shaping differing approaches the two countries take towards foreign affairs. Lieven and Carden also touch upon the Navalny saga and what the US media gets wrong about Putin’s Russia.
Elizabeth Eaves: Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?
America is building a new weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear missile the length of a bowling lane. It will be able to travel some 6,000 miles, carrying a warhead more than 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It will be able to kill hundreds of thousands of people in a single shot.
PODCAST: Lyle J. Goldstein on the Nuclear Tensions Between the US and Russia
Scott Horton talks to Lyle Goldstein about the U.S.-Russia relationship and the future of global nuclear arms negotiations. Goldstein says that after the Cold War, the world’s nuclear weapon situation was mostly under control – as a result, people today have forgotten how dangerous these weapons are, as evidenced by the American government’s willingness to let old treaties lapse.
Adam Pontius: Why Biden should not support Georgia’s ascension to NATO
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s suggestion during his confirmation hearing that he would consider supporting Georgia’s membership in NATO has largely gone overlooked.
VIDEO: For Russian leftists, Western favorite Navalny represents same corrupt elitism
The imprisoned Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny has been held up in the West as the poster child of the Russian opposition. Two Russian leftists, Katya Kazbek and Alexey Sakhnin, talk with Aaron Mate and discuss why they don’t see Navalny as a genuine alternative to Vladimir Putin, and instead as a representative of a different faction of the ruling Russian elite – one more willing to cater to Western counterparts.
German Foreign Policy: Colonial Methods
With his talks in Moscow at the end of last week, the EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell was seeking to prepare the planned debate on EU-Russia relations in Brussels, which is on the agenda for the upcoming EU foreign ministers meeting on February 22, and subsequently at its summit of the heads of states and governments on March 25-26.
Patrick Lawrence: America’s age of isolation
While the US has become increasingly hostile toward the Russian Federation, Emmanuel Macron has argued strenuously for some time that Europe must re-engage Russia as a key step toward a more independent foreign policy altogether.
The American Committee for US-Russia Accord: Symposium: Which Way Forward For US-Russia Relations?
The Board Members of the American Committee for US-Russia Accord have come together to lend their insights and suggestions as to how we might find a peaceful and productive way forward for the US-Russia relationship. [Read more…] about The American Committee for US-Russia Accord: Symposium: Which Way Forward For US-Russia Relations?
Center for the National Interest: Russian Protests and American Interests
What is driving Putin’s actions toward Navalny? How big a challenge do protests pose to President Putin’s rule? And how should the United States approach this controversy? Jill Dougherty, Robert Legvold, and Konstantin Remchukov discuss these questions and more in a panel moderated by George Beebe.
Unregistered Podcast: Historian Thaddeus Russell Talks with Scott Horton
Scott Horton (author and host of the Scott Horton Show) and Thaddeus Russell explore new ways of thinking about the war in Yemen, the Biden foreign policy team, the expansion of NATO, and U.S.-Russia relations.
Graham E. Fuller: US primacy is a self-fulfilling threat generator
We must acknowledge that we are always making conscious choices and decisions about who we select as the enemy du jour based on our assessment of what serves our “national interest,” a phrase routinely invoked by foreign policy specialists and politicians. But “national interest” tends to be a highly subjective affair that is eminently debatable. In fact, determining just what are our true national interests is what foreign policy debate is all about. And the answer depends on your worldview, your ideology.
Bloomberg: Putin’s Once-Scorned Vaccine Now Favorite in Pandemic Fight
Countries are lining up for supplies of Sputnik V after peer-reviewed results published in The Lancet medical journal this week showed the Russian vaccine protects against the deadly virus about as well as U.S. and European shots, and far more effectively than Chinese rivals.
Paul Robinson: Russians are increasingly fed up with Putin…
But are they? On the one hand, journalists provide anecdotal evidence to support the claim. On the other hand, there are the cold hard facts of survey statistics. What do they tell us?
Reminder from ACURA: Which Way Forward for US-Russia Relations?
On Friday, the American Committee for US-Russia Accord (ACURA) published a symposium on US-Russia relations on our flagship website USRUSSIAACCORD.COM featuring a distinguished panel of Russia experts, diplomats, peace activists and journalists, including Ambassador Jack Matlock, Georgetown University Professor Anatol Lieven, the award winning filmmaker Cynthia Lazaroff, and the scholar David C. Speedie, among many others. Please check out our website and read it all.
Reuters: Navalny affair no grounds to cancel Nord Stream pipeline, new German CDU chief says
“…feel-good moralizing and domestic slogans are not foreign policy,” Armin Laschet, who is premier of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said in an interview that focused on understanding his little-known views on international affairs.
AP: Longtime Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz dies at 100
Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a titan of American academia, business and diplomacy who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve Cold War relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East, has died. He was 100.
Lyle J. Goldstein: A deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship is dangerous. Biden should rein in tensions
Mixing Russia’s domestic political issues with cyber complications creates a perfect storm.
Announcement: ACEWA is now The American Committee for US-Russia Accord
The American Committee for East West Accord has become the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord (ACURA), a renaming that better describes the clear focus on improving the bilateral relationship in challenging times. Today we are pleased to announce several distinguished additions to our Board: Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director of The Nation; Anatol Lieven, professor of international relations at Georgetown University; Cynthia Lazaroff, award-winning documentary filmmaker and author; Christopher Charles Dyson, executive vice president of the Dyson-Kissner Moran Corporation; and Krishen Mehta, Senior Global Justice Fellow at Yale University. [Read more…] about Announcement: ACEWA is now The American Committee for US-Russia Accord