Section: The American Interest (USA)
Clinton Tacks to the Right of President Obama on Foreign Policy
Hillary Clinton unveiled her foreign policy in a speech at the Brookings Institution yesterday, laying out positions that are more activist than the Obama Administration’s stances, despite putting her shoulder behind the Iran deal. The NYT reports: [M]ost of her speech and discussion afterward was an effort to navigate a careful line...
Besieged Gazprom Gives Ground to Brussels
Score one for Brussels. The EU is finally, haltingly moving away from the onerous long-term, take-or-pay contracts Russian gas firm Gazprom has foisted on its Western customers. Yesterday marked Gazprom’s first public auction of gas in Europe, and three more will follow this week. Those auctions mark a shift in the continent’s gas...
Emperor Nero’s Lesson on Ukraine
How does one fight a war for a buffer state?A war for the maintenance or reestablishment of a buffer state is a peculiar beast. It is not a war of conquest, because direct territorial control would undermine the purpose of the buffer. It is also not a war aiming to inflict a massive defeat on the rival power, due to the recognition that such an...
Can Ukraine Salvage its Shale Hopes?
Natural gas has been at center of Ukraine’s fractious relationship with Russia these recent years, and it’s had to contend with price gouging, take-or-pay contracts, and even mid-winter shut-offs from its eastern supplier Gazprom. But Ukraine sits on its own bountiful gas reserves, many of which continue to lie untapped. Late last...
US Deploys F-22s and Drones to Eastern Europe
The United States European Command has taken steps to reassure NATO allies in Eastern Europe: On Monday, an American airbase in Germany sent two F-22s to Poland. This followed the deployment of two Predator Drones and 70 airmen for training exercises in Latvia. Reuters has the update on the Latvia developments: “This temporary deployment of...
Nationalist Violence Erupts in Kiev
Violent nationalist protests broke out in Kiev yesterday after Ukraine’s Parliament gave initial support to a bill that would devolve power to the breakaway eastern regions of the country—one of the conditions imposed on Kiev by the Minsk agreement. At least two policemen were killed by a hand grenade thrown by what government forces said...
Egypt Finds an Offshore “Supergiant”
“It’s an exciting moment for us and also for Egypt. This historic discovery will be able to transform the energy scenario of Egypt.” Those were the words of Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of the Italian energy major ENI, as he tried to put in context ENI’s discovery of a so-called “supergiant” gas field some 120 miles off of Egypt’s...
Russia’s Beer Nativism
Nationalist activists are showing their love for Mother Russia by destroying foreign beer as a way to promote domestic food products in the wake of the self-harming food import ban that the Kremlin introduced as a counter to Western sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine. The London Times reports: A group of ultra-conservative Cossacks, spearheaded...
Ukraine’s Recruiting Problem
As violence in the east of Ukraine flares, Kiev is struggling worse than ever to meet its recruiting goals, as Defense News reports: Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense managed to recruit only about half of the 25,000 conscripts it was hoping for, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Peter Mehed. The government is implementing its sixth...
Putin Slips in the Polls
Vladimir Putin’s domestic approval ratings are dipping according to two recent Russian polls, after they had shot up in the wake of the annexation of Crimea. Numbers on what Russians think of their Tsar—ahem, President—still show him remaining quite popular in absolute terms, but the step down in the numbers appears to be real. Reuters...
