NATO’s intention to admit the Ukraine as a full member and Russia’s reaction to it in amassing 100,000 troops at the border with Ukraine has led to the most serious and dangerous crisis on the European continent since the end of the Cold War. As if the Cold War had never ended, the two strongest […]
When the Cold War ended peacefully in 1990, Europe was its main beneficiary. Today, only 30 years later, we seem on the verge of yet another Cold War. This should ring alarm bells among Europeans. A new Cold War is not in Europe’s interest; it would be the loser. Hence Europe’s foreign policies must aim
I have always loved Afghanistan and the friendliness and hospitality of its people. I experienced Afghans not as extremists but as an extraordinarily proud, sincere and honest people who are scraping a living out of the harsh conditions of their country. I miss the mountains with their snow caps, the narrow green valleys with their
David Archibald, writing in American Thinker last week, has an interesting analysis of population growth and the dependence on wheat imports in Afghanistan. I thank him for this analysis. Let me add an observation I made when I accompanied Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi to Afghanistan to open the U.N. office — later called UNAMI — in
The impeachment process in the US Congress is over, with former President Trump being acquitted. Both sides of America’s political divide now claim victory. Michael von der Schulenburg argues that all sides have lost, and that American democracy is failing its people. More than ever in the past, the impeachment, a political rather than a
Europe faces fundamental geopolitical changes caused by a decline in US global power, the rise of China and Asia, a re-assertive Russia, the emergence of multiple regional powers and the many intra-state armed conflicts in its neighborhood. To this come the effects of continued population increases, especially in Africa and the Middle East, scarce resources,
Although almost unnoticed today, 75 years ago, on 24 October 1945, the probably most important international treaty, the United Nations Charter, came into effect. Its aim was not only to end WWII, but to save, once and for all, succeeding generations from the scourge of war. In San Francisco, the victors against Nazi Germany pledged
The war in Afghanistan should serve as a warning about the degree to which armed non-state actors (ANSAs) now dominate the global peace and security agenda and how ill-prepared the West – indeed, the international community – is to respond to this threat. The 11 September 2001 attack on the United States by the ANSA
The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, recently declared that ‘nationalism is the mother of all political problems’. Such a statement must be understood in the context of Germany’s troubled history. However, in the UN Security Council, Germany may face a totally different problem: how to rescue nation-states. Indeed, the future of nation-states has become a
When President Obama gave his speech at the opening of the UN General Assembly in September this year, much of it sounded like a declaration of war on the so-called Islamic State (IS but also known as ISIS, ISIL, ISIG, EIS and even Daesh) within the territories of Iraq and Syria. Of course, by that