Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Ginbot 7 and Andergachew Tsege: Ethiopian Opposition Leader and Quasi-Terrorist
On July 8, the Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and Federal Police Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce announced the arrest of Andergachew Tsege, the secretary-general of terrorist group Ginbot 7 (“May 15” in Amharic). Ethiopia’s intelligence agency tipped off its Yemeni counterpart about Tsege’s arrival... MORE
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An Equal and Opposite Reaction? Xi’s Grand Tour of the Americas
This July, Chinese President Xi Jinping embarked on state visits to Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela and attended a summit of the loose group of major developing countries known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Fortaleza, Brazil. This was his second trip... MORE
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Rogun Dam Studies Set the Scene for Further Disputes Among Central Asian Countries
Last month (July 2014), a World Bank assessment explicitly approved the technical, economic and social aspects of the construction of the planned Rogun hydropower plant (Rogun HPP). The conclusions vindicate Tajikistan, which has hoped to build this hydroelectric dam for years. Uzbekistan, on the other... MORE
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Putin to Decide Next Moves in Standoff With West Over Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin gathered Duma deputies, national Security Council permanent members, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev—almost the entire Russian ruling elite—in Yalta, Crimea, to give a speech and a Q & A session on external and internal policies. The fighting in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas... MORE
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Belarus and the ‘End of Peace’ in Europe
On July 31, the international Contact Group, which aims to resolve the crisis in Ukraine (see EDM, July 18), met in Zaslavl, Belarus. It was attended by former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, some representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s... MORE
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Hot Issue – Lies, Damned Lies and Russian Disinformation
Executive Summary The Russian Federation uses extensive propaganda, outright lies, and—most importantly—disinformation as part of the hybrid warfare it is waging against Ukraine and the West. Disinformation combines truth, what people want to be true, and cleverly disguised outright falsehoods. Moscow has been actively using... MORE
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Transnistria-Type Scenario Looming in Ukraine’s Donbas (Part Two)
Building a giant version of Transnistria in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (Donbas) is Russia’s current policy, but it was not its start-off option. It became a fall-back plan when Moscow’s even more ambitious “Novorossiya” project failed (at least temporarily) in the other six provinces... MORE
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Putin Picks the Worst of All Bad Choices
With the arrival of August, political expectations in Russia, informed by the long experience of setbacks and disasters, are turning negative. Second thoughts about the “victorious” war with Georgia that erupted six years ago blend with reflections on the centennial anniversary of World War I... MORE
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Mongolian-Japanese Economic Partnership Agreement: Counterbalancing China and Russia
On the 40th anniversary of establishing bilateral diplomatic relations, Mongolia’s President Tsakhia Elbegdorj and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in Tokyo on July 22, 2014, to sign a Joint Statement on affirming the final roadmap toward instituting an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Aimed at... MORE
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Transnistria-Type Scenario Looming in Ukraine’s Donbas (Part One)
Western diplomacy seems about to revert to pressuring Ukraine into a disadvantageous armistice and negotiations with Russia’s protégés in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.” This could become the basis for creating a Transnistria-type Russian protectorate, frozen in place and time on Ukraine’s territory (see... MORE