Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 30, 2015

Vladimir Putin at his end-of-the-year news conference in Moscow. Maxim Smeyev / Reuters

Jeffrey Taylor, The Atlantic: The World According to Russia

A documentary on state television gives a glimpse of Vladimir Putin’s philosophy.

“Do you realize what you have done?” Vladimir Putin demanded at the United Nations in September. The question was a rebuke to the American-led bloc of countries that initially viewed with optimism the Arab Spring, which began five years ago this month, but has since given way to chaos and Islamist violence across once-stable parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Those events, and much else, look different when viewed from Russia than they do from the United States, and a documentary that aired recently on Russian state television helps explain the worldview behind Putin’s question.

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 30, 2015

Russia and Ukraine Finally Break Up -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

How ISIS Actually Lost Ramadi -- Nancy A. Youssef & Shane Harris, Daily Beast

Is this the Beginning of the End for ISIS in Iraq? -- Con Coughlin, Telegraph

On the brink, with Erdoğan -- Michael Goldfarb, Politico

Middle East still rocking from first world war pacts made 100 years ago -- Ian Black, The Guardian

China, the U.S. and the Coming Taiwan Transition -- Douglas Paal, The Diplomat

7 Events of Geopolitical Consequence to Anticipate in Asia in Early 2016 -- Ankit Panda, The Diplomat

Central African Republic Hopes Election Will Halt Violence -- AP

Libya Next For Military Intervention Against IS? -- Sam Kiley, SKY News

Recession, retrenchment, revolution? Impact of low crude prices on oil powers -- The Guardian

Africa’s new brooms clean house -- Robert Rotberg, Special to The Globe and Mail

Donbass Smolders While the World Focuses on Syria -- L. Todd Wood, Compass

Belgium on edge after year of terror -- Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank, CNN

Brazil’s fall: Disaster looms for Latin America’s biggest economy -- The Economist

Canada's New Government Makes Its First Big Mistake -- Christopher Flavelle, Bloomberg

1 comment:

Don Bacon said...

Obviously the US has not realized what it has done. It believes it is bringing peace to Syria, for one thing, confusing the illegal attempts to overthrow a government with bringing peace. So asking the question, as Putin has, is to answer it.