Europe

Yes, Putin and Russia are fascist – a political scientist shows how they meet the textbook definition

By Alexander Motyl, Rutgers University – Newark | – When Vladimir Putin unleashed an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the Ukrainian media, public and policymakers almost unanimously began calling the Russian president and the state he leads “rashyst.” The term is a hybrid of a derogatory moniker for Russia – “rasha” – […]

Bashar al-Assad

What does Russia’s history of urban warfare in Aleppo and Grozny mean for Ukraine?

Global Voices

By Roman Shemakov | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, the conflict has increasingly focused on urban hubs. The cities of Mariupol near the Black Sea and Kharkiv near the Belarusian and Russian border have been fully surrounded by Russian forces, facing hourly bombing campaigns for weeks. The […]

racism

Ukraine war shows it’s time to do away with the racist ‘Clash of Civilizations’ theory

The Conversation

By Katherine Bullock, University of Toronto | – “The clash of civilizations,” wrote the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington in a famous 1993 article, “will dominate global politics.” He predicted: “The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” Picked apart by critics for conceptual and empirical errors, the tragedy […]

Climate Crisis

The Costs of (Another) War: When We Could Be Fighting Climate Change

Tomdispatch

By Andrea Mazzarino | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – What do a six-year-old in the United States and an 85-year-old in Russia have in common besides being on opposite sides of a war? They’re both feeling the strain of a warming planet. “Is the earth going to get so hot that we can’t survive?” my […]

Displaced and Refugees

We must turn solidarity with Ukraine into the new normal for all refugees

Waging Nonviolence

By Nicolas Haeringer | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – Since Russia started its war on Ukraine, we’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of solidarity with Ukrainians. People have made online donations to the Ukrainian army, Europe has welcomed refugees with open arms and free trains, western countries have united in their imposition of sanctions on […]

Climate Crisis

If Biden Really wants Putin to Fall, He should make Green Energy a War Measure

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden, at the end of his impassioned address in Warsaw, said: “A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia — for free people […]

Authoritarianism

Could Vladimir Putin be ousted over his Ukraine invasion?

The Conversation

Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, University of British Columbia | – As the Russian invasion of Ukraine grinds on with no apparent solution through international diplomacy, some commentators are wondering if an end of the conflict could come from Vladimir Putin’s removal from power in Russia. Russian troops on the Ukrainian front lines are struggling, prominent Russian […]

Energy

No to Blackmail: Germany to be free from Russian oil, coal by end of 2022, Gas by 2024 – Econ Minister

Julian Wettengel

( Clean Energy Wire) – Germany is making considerable progress in weaning itself off fossil fuel imports from Russia and could become virtually independent of the country’s coal and oil by the end of this year, said economy and climate minister Robert Habeck in Berlin. Natural gas supply poses the biggest challenge and it will […]

Israel/ Palestine

Time is ticking: Israel’s balancing act in Ukraine is likely to backfire

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel’s balancing act in the Russia-Ukraine war is likely to falter soon, simply because the resulting NATO-Russia conflict is expected to last for years, not weeks or months. Eventually, Israel would have to make a choice. Alas, whatever that choice may be, Israel will stand to lose. From the […]