A RAND 2019 Report: How the US – unprovoked – thought about undermining Russia and used Ukraine as it greatest vulnerability

A RAND 2019 Report: How the US – unprovoked – thought about undermining Russia and used Ukraine as it greatest vulnerability

Jan Oberg March 18, 2022 A few quotes first… • “A report that comprehensively examines nonviolent, cost-imposing options that the United States and its allies could pursue across economic, political, and military areas to stress—overextend and unbalance – Russia’s economy and armed forces and the regime’s political standing at home and abroad.” • “Today’s Russia […]

Bryce Greene: Calling Russia’s attack ‘unprovoked’ lets the US off the hook

Bryce Greene: Calling Russia’s attack ‘unprovoked’ lets the US off the hook

Wikimedia map of NATO expansion since 1949 created by Patrickneil.  Bryce Greene March 18, 2022 Originally posted on FAIR.org on March 4, 2022 Many governments and media figures are rightly condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine as an act of aggression and a violation of international law. But in his first speech about the invasion, […]

Robert Wright: In Defense of Whataboutism

Robert Wright: In Defense of Whataboutism

Even during wartime – maybe especially during wartime – you should be allowed to ask uncomfortable questions Robert Wright at Nonzero Newsletter March 7, 2022 Twice over the past two decades I’ve felt outraged by a massive invasion that violated international law. One time was last week, when Russia invaded Ukraine. The other time was […]

Jan Oberg: Stop the security intellectual disarmament – Learn to conflict and peace constructively!

Jan Oberg: Stop the security intellectual disarmament – Learn to conflict and peace constructively!

Shubham Dhage on Unsplash Jan Oberg March 4, 2022 The first draft of this article was written in mid-February, ten days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine but while the NATO-Russia conflict centred upon Ukraine was building up. Little could I know that virtually all the examples of conflict and peace illiteracy that I list […]

Ukraine crisis: Time for some peace diplomacy, visions of a better future

Ukraine crisis: Time for some peace diplomacy, visions of a better future

Jan Oberg March 3, 2022 I am happy to inform you about my latest column in China’s leading Global Times – with the title above. Read it here and when you are anyhow there, look around: Many different subjects from the Western media and many different angles from a country we all need to know […]

Branko Marcetic: The CIA may be breeding Nazi terror in Ukraine

Branko Marcetic: The CIA may be breeding Nazi terror in Ukraine

Members of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment take part in a march to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Kyiv in 2020. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Branko Marcetic February 25 2022 The CIA has been secretly training anti-Russian groups in Ukraine since 2015. Everything we know points to the likelihood […]

John Mearsheimer: Why is Ukraine the West’s fault?

John Mearsheimer: Why is Ukraine the West’s fault?

March 1, 2022 This is a recorded lecture from 2015 by Professor John Mearsheimer. In the perspective of what has just happened with and in Ukraine, this is simply prophetic. Here is a rather complex set of intertwined arguments that makes an incredibly clear-headed analysis – and warning. No decision-makers listened and thus, we are […]

Alfred De Zayas: A Culture of Cheating – On the Origins of the Crisis in Ukraine

Alfred De Zayas: A Culture of Cheating – On the Origins of the Crisis in Ukraine

Alfred De Zayas February 11, 2022 The current tensions between the United States and Russia with regard to Ukraine goes back to a series of NATO actions and omissions following the demise of the Soviet Union in 1989/91.  On the Russian side, there is a widespread perception of having been misled by the US and […]

Robin Poulton: Ukrainian Sovereignty Means Not Joining NATO

Robin Poulton: Ukrainian Sovereignty Means Not Joining NATO

Robin Edward Poulton February 11, 2022 1 Feb 2022 – Secretary of State Blinken’s statement on January 26th was a disaster: a statement pleading for peace in Ukraine that was laden with aggression against Russia. The statement suffered from the lack of imagination we associate with U.S. imperialism, and a wanton refusal to understand how and why Russia […]

Benjamin & Davies: Memo to Congress – Diplomacy for Ukraine is spelled M-i-n-s-k

Benjamin & Davies: Memo to Congress – Diplomacy for Ukraine is spelled M-i-n-s-k

Photo: Michael Rubin, Dreamstime Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies February 11, 2022 While the Biden administration is sending more troops and weapons to inflame the Ukraine conflict and Congress is pouring more fuel on the fire, the American people are on a totally different track. A December 2021 poll found that a plurality […]