Are we at the end of an eighty-year period of US global leadership? The United States emerged as a global leader—no, the key global actor—when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt overcame a long tradition of US isolationism by moving forward with the Lend-Lease program that provided essential aid to keep the United Kingdom in the war
Amid worsening ammunition shortages and mounting concerns over the future of Western military aid, the Ukrainian army has largely switched to active defense in recent months. Nevertheless, as the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches the two-year mark, talk of a stalemate remains premature. While heavy fighting continues at various hot spots along the front
Neither tear gas, police batons, nor the twelve degree January windchill were able to deter thousands of protesters from taking to the streets in Baymak, Bashkortostan, at the start of 2024. On January 12, over 1,500 people turned out in this small town, 250 miles from the regional capital of Ufa, marking one of the
Ukraine recorded solid progress last year in its long struggle with corruption, according to the latest edition of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Wartime Ukraine climbed twelve places in the 2023 edition of the annual survey to rank 104th among 180 featured countries, increasing its anti-corruption score from 33 to 36 out of 100. “Ukraine’s
To mark this year’s Ukrainian Unity Day on January 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree calling for efforts to research, publicize, and safeguard Ukrainian cultural identity in regions of today’s Russian Federation “historically inhabited by Ukrainians.” The move was a masterful piece of trolling by the Ukrainian leader, while also representing a long
The European Union confirmed a landmark $54 billion aid package for Ukraine on February 1 in Brussels, after EU leaders were able to overcome opposition from Hungary. The agreement is a major breakthrough for Ukraine amid growing concerns over the future of Western backing for the war against Russia. It will provide vital long-term support
“We have a deal,” European Council President Charles Michel announced on Thursday. Then, to underscore the inclusivity of that first-person plural pronoun, he added that all twenty-seven European Union (EU) countries had agreed on a fifty-billion-euro aid package to Ukraine through 2027. The breakthrough follows weeks of resistance from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It
Vladimir Putin has committed serious resources to ensure that the Russian people only see what he wants them to see. Yet despite the best efforts of the Russian dictator, the ever-evolving world of Big Tech offers a variety of avenues for free expression, even in closed societies. But without the right policy structures, Big Tech
Ukrainian drones struck a major oil refinery in southern Russia early on January 25, sparking a blaze that highlighted an emerging new front in the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin almost two years ago. The incident was the latest in a series of recent attacks on Russian energy infrastructure as Ukraine seeks to bring the
Ukrainian officials have condemned a new decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early 2024 simplifying the process of conferring Russian citizenship on Ukrainian children abducted from wartime Ukraine. Issued on January 4, 2024, the citizenship decree is officially designed to ease the process of granting Russian citizenship to foreign nationals and stateless persons.
