#Russia

The Syrian government has been exerting a great deal of influence on the actions of the UN aid agencies in Syria. It has leveraged foreign aid workers need for its permission to enter Syria into access to supplies for its supporters while denying vital food and medical aid to civilians trapped in areas outside its control.

At a gathering of NATO’s defense ministers, it was announced that nearly 4,000 troops forming four battalions would be stationed in the Baltics and Poland.

Despite previous aggressive actions by Chinese vessels, Malaysia has ignored them, not wishing to disturb its trade and investment relationships with China.

Japan realizes, irrespective of U.S. wishes, that it needs better relations with Russia in order to more effectively balance China within the region.

While continued attempts at dialogue seek that elusive common ground, some transparency and risk-reduction measures are in trial mode to keep open channels.

The fighting outbreak in Nagorno-Karabakh was the largest since the 1994 Bishkek Protocol ceasefire. However, the situation has now “normalized.”

The U.S. decision to lift its arms embargo against Vietnam must factor in Russian rivalry and regional economic considerations.

NATO should strengthen both aspects of this renewed dual-track policy—responding to the security needs of its most exposed members, while at the same time advocating dialogue and transparency to diffuse tension in their relations with Russia.

Where governments are unable or unwilling to venture, at least publicly, for fear of losing credibility with their electorates or their allies, parallel diplomacy can offer a way forward.

Russian resurgence has planted seeds of conflict both within individual NATO members, as well as between different geographic areas of the alliance.

The ancient city of Palmyra has been the stage for mass executions, the destruction of cultural heritage, battles between ISIS and Syrian government forces, and now in an absurd turn of events, a concert put on by Russia’s Mariinsky Theater Orchestra.

In 1939, an article entitled “Mourir pour Dantzig?” (“Why Die for Danzig?”) argued that France should avoid war with Germany if the latter seized Poland. Today, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as Russia’s belligerent foreign policy, leads us to ask similar questions.