Gordon, a scholar at the Brookings Institute, has been appointed as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, though he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. EurasiaNet reports that this is a political appointment as Gordon is a close associate of Obama’s with little experience in the former Soviet Union. Apparently, this will give his deputy secretary more clout. Gordon is an expert on Europe and Turkey and particularly knowledgeable about France. After visiting Georgia in 2005, he expressed his strong support for its government and urged the US to support Georgia in joining NATO. He argued that Russia should understand that having democracies as neighbors would only benefit it.
That is a dangerous sentiment only because Russia could not disagree more. I hope that the deputy secretary, as yet unnamed, will explain how sensitive Russia is to sharing borders with Western-orientated democracies. On the other hand, perhaps his close relationship to Obama, after heading his campaign team on relations with Europe, will increase the US’s diplomatic connections with Central Asia.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
