Vladimir Putin has this week proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine that would significantly lower the threshold for the country’s use of nuclear weapons. Addressing a September 25 meeting of senior Kremlin officials, he presented a series of draft amendments aimed at expanding the scope for possible nuclear strikes. Putin emphasized that if these revisions
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to present his widely anticipated Victory Plan to United States President Joe Biden later this week. While the details of Zelenskyy’s plan have yet to be made public, it should already be obvious that any serious peace proposal must include a significant boost in current military support for Ukraine,
Since the heinous terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, Israel has waged a war against Hamas to ensure that this type of attack cannot happen again. To do so, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set a goal of demilitarizing Hamas in Gaza and ensuring that it can no longer govern. Simultaneously, Iran’s largest terrorist proxy
If Donald Trump wins the United States presidential election in November, he has pledged to bring the war in Ukraine to a swift end by brokering an agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump himself has yet to elaborate on the terms of any potential deal, but his vice presidential
Tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia have escalated in recent days. Relations between the two African countries, already strained since 2011 due to Ethiopia’s construction and filling of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile—a project Egypt views as a major threat to its water and food security—have further deteriorated. The recent downturn
Vladimir Putin attempted to draw yet another red line on September 12, warning Western leaders that any decision to let Ukraine use long-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean that NATO countries are “at war” with Russia. Speaking to the Kremlin media, Putin said that allowing Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory using Western-produced missiles
On August 21, after days of deliberation, Iran’s parliament approved President Masoud Pezeshkian’s “national accord” cabinet. Notably, the conservative-dominated parliament did not reject any of Pezeshkian’s proposed nineteen ministers, a decision that defied expectations—making it the first cabinet to pass with flying colors since 2001. While touted by some as an attempt at an all-inclusive
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine first began more than two and a half years ago, talk of Russian red lines has been a major feature of the international debate surrounding the war. Throughout this period, the Kremlin has relentlessly exploited this preoccupation with Russian red lines to fuel Western fears of escalation and limit
Although it is currently common to talk about the West as a unitary actor in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian War, the stakes actually differ significantly on the two opposite sides of the Atlantic. Most obviously, if Russia succeeds in Ukraine and goes further, Europe will become a battlefield. With this in mind, it makes
As Canada’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 2019 to 2022, I had a diplomatic front-row seat and occasional behind-the-scenes views into the quiet yet consistent progress that eventually led to the Abraham Accords. While I wasn’t surprised when the declaration was announced in 2020, I hadn’t anticipated how rapidly and warmly relations
