US Foreign Policy

Oil Sheikhs have us Behind the 8-Ball: The UAE’s mixed Signals on Oil underline need for US to move Rapidly to Green Transportation

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – America is paying the price for lagging behind in its adoption of electric vehicles and in putting in more electric mass transit. Because we are still mostly a society that moves on gasoline, we are dependent on the worst people in the world for our energy. Even where we produce […]

Libya

Ukraine, Libya, and the Enduring Global Disorder

Sabina Henneberg

Washington, D.C. (Special to Informed Comment) – According to some analyses, the ongoing war in Ukraine appears to have finally put to rest the illusion of global governance. Instead, it illustrates the emergence of what Libya expert Jason Pack calls the Enduring Global Disorder. In Pack’s view, irrespective of Russian victory, the international response to […]

Russia

Why Apple, Disney, IKEA and hundreds of other Western companies are abandoning Russia with barely a shrug

The Conversation

By Douglas Schuler and Laura Marie Edinger-Schons | – Many companies in the U.S. and elsewhere have been quick to sever ties to Russia – going well beyond applying the sanctions ordered by their governments. IKEA, Nike and H&M are temporarily closing their Russian stores. Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. paused the release of new […]

Arab Spring

Ukraine: What the Libya War tells us about Why we Really don’t want a NATO No-Fly Zone

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tracy Wilkinson at the Los Angeles Times writes about the no-fly zone proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and the flat refusal of the Pentagon to go in that direction. The clamor for a no-fly zone among some in Congress and in US civil society, however, displays a remarkable […]

Climate Crisis

EVs are Freedom Cars: When you Fill up your Car with Gasoline, you’re Helping Putin Destroy Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Alex Mills writes that Russia produces 11 million barrels a day of petroleum and in 2021 exported 7.5 million barrels a day. That is about 11.5 percent of all the petroleum produced daily in the world. It is in part the income from those oil sales that helps Vladimir Putin […]

nuclear weapons

Worried about nuclear war? You can actually do something to prevent it

Frida Berrigan

By Frida Berrigan | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – Ukraine is on fire. Russia is using cluster and thermobaric bombs, targetting civilians, killing children in its invasion of the second largest country in Europe. Russian citizens are protesting the war, risking brutal treatment to hold signs and public space. Ukrainian citizens are resisting with […]

Featured

The Night Biden became President: Pledges Crippling Sanctions on Russia, bans Flights, for Ukraine Aggression

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Foreign policy abruptly hijacked President Biden’s State of the Union Address Tuesday night, making the occasion less partisan that it might otherwise have been. Pundits were always declaring that Donald Trump’s response to some crisis was “the day he became president.” They made themselves look a little silly, though, since […]

Joe Biden

Turkey will Block Certain Russian Warships from Bosphorus, but still Seeks Neutrality on Ukraine War

Global Voices

By Lamiya Adilgizi | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – Over the last week, nations and corporations all over the world have announced extensive economic and political sanctions against Russia, targeting the finance, energy, transport, technology, and visa sectors. A number of Russian banks have been removed from the SWIFT messaging system. Russia’s Central Bank assets […]

Germany

Could the G7 Wealthy Countries Really Boycott Russian Petroleum?

The Conversation

By Amy Myers Jaffe | – One option the U.S. and other nations have for ratcheting up pressure on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine is reducing their Russian energy purchases. U.K. Foreign Minister Liz Truss has proposed that the G7 nations – the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – […]