Author: TheConversation

By Alexander Motyl, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University – Newark President Joe Biden and NATO allies in Europe are trying to help Ukraine fight off Russian aggression, but not so much that Russia will retaliate militarily against them. These leaders’ deliberations and calibrations are all taking place against a fundamental background question: Is Ukraine a vital interest to my country? The answer to that question, what is a vital interest, has guided the formation of Western foreign policy for generations now. It is a commonly held belief among political analysts that countries should prioritize and defend what are...

By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University; and Jack Adam MacLennan, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Graduate Program Director for National Security Studies, Park University International politics is usually discussed in terms of historical periods associated with specific characteristics. Think of the Cold War adversaries, wars fought for ostensibly humanitarian reasons in the 1990s, or the focus on terrorism and state-building during the War on Terror. For many, including the United States government, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new period of superpower showdowns. We...

By Gregory Carleton, Professor of Russian Studies, Tufts University The range of anti-Russian measures taken by countries around the world since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is virtually unprecedented and hearkens back to the darkest days of the Cold War. They have assumed many forms but broadly include economic sanctions, military support for Ukraine and boycotts of Russian exports. Other forms of resistance, undertaken primarily by nonstate actors, focus more on Russian culture – its music, literature and arts – with the country’s conductors dismissed from European concert halls and pieces by Tchaikovsky excised from set lists....

By Andrew Blum, Executive Director and Professor of Practice at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Kroc School, University of San Diego Ukraine and Russia have held intermittent peace talks since the end of February 2022, just days after Russia first launched a war. Russian President Vladimir Putin squashed hope of an imminent peace deal on April 12 when he said that the talks “have again returned to a dead-end situation for us.” Ukraine maintains that the discussions are still “taking place,” even as the “negotiations are extremely difficult,” according to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Russia’s...