Section: The American Interest (USA)
Will China Drive a Wedge Between the US and Europe?
Europe finally seems to be waking up to the fact that is has been the object of China’s extended “western strategy” for the past two decades. In Brussels, there is an emerging awareness that the flow of Chinese money into Europe has positioned Beijing to shape the Continent’s economic landscape and influence its politics. But one...
The Rule of Law in the Russian Jungle
Damir Marusic for TAI: What is Russia’s stated case for holding the kidnapped Ukrainian seamen captive? Ilya Novikov: First of all, I will not use the term “kidnapping” because the Russians insist it was an arrest, and we, the defense team, prefer to call it a capture of prisoners of war. In my opinion, the Russians didn’t really plan...
Against Visegrád
Remember the “Little Entente,” maintained by Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia during the interwar period? The regional alliance was created under French auspices and its initial goals included preventing the reemergence of a greater Austria and Hungary and defending Eastern Europe against the threat of Soviet communism and later of German...
The Taiwan Relations Act at 40: It’s Time to Deepen Ties
April 10 marks the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act becoming the law of the land. The statute was a striking example of a Democratic-controlled Congress pushing back against a Democratic President’s decision to break diplomatic ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan).On December 15, 1978, officials in Beijing and Washington...
Handling the Transatlantic Stress Test: A Conversation with Lithuania’s Foreign Minister
This week marks the annual NATO ministerial meeting in Washington, when foreign ministers from the Alliance’s 29 members convene to discuss shared security threats. It also marks the 70th anniversary of NATO itself: a milestone that has been met with both celebration of NATO’s past and trepidation about its future.One of the foreign...
The French Connection in Europe’s Elections
French President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the “citizens of Europe” on March 4 launched the campaign for the European parliamentary elections, now scheduled for the end of May. Yet those elections remain overshadowed by events just outside the Continent: namely, Westminster’s uncertain ratification of the separation treaty with the...
Frustrated Voters Could Elect Comic In Time of War
Ukrainians go to the polls later this week to elect their sixth president, but there’s little to celebrate. Thirty-eight candidates will face off in the first round. A candidate must win at least fifty percent to win outright, so given the large number of candidates and the current polls, a second round is likely to follow.One could be...
A Ukrainian Oligarch Waits in the Wings
Ukraine’s international reputation is not to be envied. Despite years of strong budget discipline, three years of growth now averaging 3 percent, reforms that have resulted in a reduction in corruption flows amounting to 6 percent of GDP, and the stymying of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine in part through the building of a strong...
Corruption is the New Communism
Corruption has always existed. In Deuteronomy 16:19 the Bible says, “You must not accept bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.” Corruption’s insidious effects have grown to alarming dimensions, however, in the twenty-first century. Grand corruption – the use of state power by...
Volodymyr Zelensky Is Ukraine’s Anti-Trump
The shocking rise of performer Volodymyr Zelensky as the frontrunner in the March 31 Ukrainian Presidential election has been greeted with derision, defamation, and skepticism. He’s been labelled variously as a “clown,” a “joke without experience,” and “Ukraine’s Donald Trump.”But Zelensky is no “clown,” nor is he the Slavic version...
