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Trade

Moscow’s Leverage in the Balkans

Since September, Kosovo’s fragile stability that has endured since 1999, following intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has grown progressively precarious. Clashes between ethnic Serbians and Kosovo security forces saw Serbia’s military placed on high alert in November. Several high-profile Serbian officials, including President Aleksandar Vučić,…

Sanctions Batter Russia as the Kremlin Attempts to Overcome Them

Western economic punishments on Russia continue to severely limit its economic prospects. But they also risk hastening the development of sanctions evasion techniques and rival economic mechanisms outside the control of Brussels and Washington. By John P. Ruehl mmediately after…

What Was Humanity’s First Cultural Revolution?

We live in a fast-moving, technology-dominated era. Happiness is fleeting, and everything is replaceable or disposable. It is understandable that people are drawn to a utopian vision. Many find refuge in the concept of a “return” to an idealized past—one…

Mexico’s President Gives Joe Biden a Big History Lesson

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) visited the United States on July 12 and offered five proposals to U.S. President Joe Biden. These proposals are based on AMLO’s in-depth knowledge of Mexican history and his reading of the economic crisis…

The Role of Energy in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

While securing territory is the Kremlin’s most obvious motivation, annexation is also tied to strengthening Russia’s energy position both regionally and globally. By John P. Ruehl After Russian forces seized Ukraine’s Kherson region at the beginning of its invasion, a Ukrainian official…

China takes the driver’s seat on free trade

Two months before the inauguration of Donald Trump as the next US President and the likely end of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, signs emerge that the Asia-Pacific region is turning towards a Plan B. During his presidential campaign,…