Europe & Central Asia Archives - Page 4 of 14

Democracy

An excerpt from Paul Josephson’s Nuclear Russia

April 26, 2023 • by Paul Josephson

The concept of preempting an enemy’s nuclear weapons that was a central point of Soviet military thought has been reiterated by President Vladimir Putin....

Europe & Central Asia

Reflections on the collective ‘Russian’ guilt and responsibility

March 20, 2023 • by Maria Stepanova

The war, begun by Russia, had deprived life of all its connective tissue: nothing happening outside Ukraine held any meaning or had any weight....

Europe & Central Asia

Canceling the West, Putin Aims to “Make Russia Great Again”

The fact that anti-Western rhetoric is increasingly popular in Russia should be a wake-up call for Europe and the U.S.

March 1, 2023 • by Anastasia Shteinert

What is happening now in the country is the reappearance and radicalization of a centuries-old resentment of the West, in the context of the war in Ukraine....

Canceling the West, Putin Aims to “Make Russia Great Again”

Europe & Central Asia

An ethnographer’s reflections on communication in wartime

February 22, 2023 • by Jessica Pisano

In this war, resistance to Russian aggression is equipped and organized and supported as much through volunteer networks as through the generous but slow-walked bankrolling from European countries whose promises and delays Ukrainian linguistic inventiveness has come to describe as “Macroning” and “Shultzing around.”...

Europe & Central Asia

There’s Nothing Natural about Turkey’s Earthquake Disaster

Erdoğan’s AKP failed to plan for a catastrophe—but did create a strategy to use this catastrophe to stay in power

February 16, 2023 • by Utku Balaban

The current crisis in Turkey is not a natural disaster but a political one. We knew that a massive earthquake would hit southeastern Turkey. For many years, several geologists have not only specified where the fault line would most likely break but also which individual settlements the ensuing earthquake would ...

There’s Nothing Natural about Turkey’s Earthquake Disaster

Europe & Central Asia

From Putin’s Chef to Kremlin’s Chief?

Why Yevgeny Prigozhin, a leader of the Wagner Group, can’t challenge Putin for power

February 14, 2023 • by Anastasia Shteinert

So long as Putin retains his legitimacy as a “strong leader,” it is extremely premature to talk about an impending coup or a threat from Prigozhin or anyone else....

Europe & Central Asia

Why Does a Powerful Nation Form an Alliance with a Minor Power?

The India-Armenia arms deal opens a window on the value of asymmetrical alliances

February 14, 2023 • by Georgi Asatryan

India-Armenia relations have been actively developing in recent years. In a series of consultations and meetings, India and Armenia have signed defense deals, a significant development in the global arms trade. For India, a great power, this was the first export deal of its weapons, while Armenia, a minor power, ...

Why Does a Powerful Nation Form an Alliance with a Minor Power?

Europe & Central Asia

The Art of Misunderstanding

On how to preserve one’s dignity while keeping the attention of western institutions

January 12, 2023 • by Kateryna Botanova

The idea that the purpose of culture is reconciliation confronts Ukrainian cultural activists with a dilemma: how to preserve one’s dignity while keeping the attention of western institutions? ...

Europe & Central Asia

Behind Milan’s Millennial Renaissance

The hidden costs of becoming an Instagrammable global city

October 27, 2022 • by Giorgio Fontana

I love Milan. I was born in its suburbs and have been living here for fifteen years; it’s still a very special place, a unique city in Italy. But its ruling class (and its residents) must tackle the problem of architectural and social inequality seriously before this place swallows itself....

Europe & Central Asia

Life on Earth: Repeating Myself about the Putin Revelation

It is time to rekindle the founders’ hope for the United Nations

October 26, 2022 • by James Carroll

It is time to rekindle the founders’ hope for the United Nations. Like ours can be, that hope first came in the form of determination to push back against the weaponized atom—that General Assembly call in 1946 to reject the nuclear bomb. The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear ...

Life on Earth: Repeating Myself about the Putin Revelation

Europe & Central Asia

People’s War and Nuclear Fear: The Anti-War Left and Ukraine

A response to James Carroll’s reckoning with peace activism

October 26, 2022 • by Jeremy Varon

America was duty-bound to save Ukrainian lives, if at the expense of Ukraine’s sovereignty. But there is an uncomfortable arrogance to this argument, framed as tough love. Perhaps the Ukrainians themselves should determine what’s worth fighting and dying for, not the U.S....

People’s War and Nuclear Fear: The Anti-War Left and Ukraine

Europe & Central Asia

The Conscience of an Anti-War Activist

In praise of James Carroll

October 25, 2022 • by Randall Kennedy

Prior to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and threats of using nuclear weapons, I had pushed fear of nuclear annihilation to the very edges of my consciousness. James Carroll bids us to recall this fear, to bring it back to the center of our concerns, and to extinguish it through effective action....