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Russia-Ukraine War War in Ukraine

For A Hard “No” To Appeasement In Ukraine

The war in Ukraine continues, and the death toll shows no signs of slowing down. This is prompting some to call for a rush to the negotiating table. This would mean strengthening Russia and, worst of all, abandoning Ukraine and our values.

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This Happened

This Happened — July 27: Korean War Armistice

The Korean War armistice agreement at Panmunjom was signed on this day in 1953, ending three years of fighting. What led to the signing of the Korean War Armistice in Panmunjom? The armistice was the result of negotiations between the United Nations Command, representing the forces supporting South Korea, and the Korean People’s Army and […]

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In The News

Stop And Feel The Sea Breeze

Our Naples-based Dottoré catches a serendipitous chill amid the summer’s heat.

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This Happened

This Happened — June 8: Napalm Girl Photograph

On this day in 1972, photographer Nick Ut captured the devastating impact of the Vietnam War on innocent civilians, particularly children. The girl in the photo is Kim Phuc, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, running naked and severely burned from a napalm attack. What happened to Kim Phuc after the Napalm Girl photograph was taken? Kim […]

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Ideas Russia-Ukraine War

Two Big Obstacles To Peace: The Russian And Ukrainian Constitutions

Even if Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky were willing to find a compromise on territory, their respective constitutions explicitly forbid signing off on such a deal.

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In The News

Russia Running UN Security Council? Symbol (And More) Of A Broken World Order

It sounded made for April Fool’s: Russia is taking over the presidency of the UN Security Council, the highest governing body in the world. But this is all too real. It’s time to rethink how the council works, Pierre Haski writes.

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

The Only Path To Peace With Russia? A New Iron Curtain On Ukraine’s Eastern Border

With a decisive deal with Putin out of the question, the only way to create a lasting peace is to recreate some fundamental dynamics of the Cold War.

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Ideas Russia-Ukraine War

“Collateral Benefit”: Could Putin’s Launching A Failed War Make The World Better?

Consider the inverse of “collateral damage.” Envision Russia’s defeat and the triumph of a democratic coalition offers reflection on the most weighty sense of costs and benefits.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Why Putin’s Threats Are More Dangerous Than The Cuban Missile Crisis

Unlike the U.S.-Soviet showdown in 1962, Vladimir Putin’s allusions to his nuclear arsenal come with no sense of rules or limits, and with a more distant memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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In The News

Zelensky Warns Of Russian “Energy Blow”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Europeans that Russia was preparing “a decisive energy blow” during the next few months. He also praised his troops for the advances being made with the counteroffensive launched in southern Ukraine to reclaim Russian-occupied territories. He said that two settlements in the south of the country as well as […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

The Meaning Of Petro: A Former Guerrilla As President Is Colombian Democracy At Work

Gustavo Petro’s victory is not only a response to the social ills of today, but having been part of a Marxist guerrilla group that negotiated with the state decades ago, and returned to the social fold, he embodies the nation’s democratic future.

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Ideas Russia-Ukraine War

My Debt To Russia, My Letter To Putin: A Very Personal Plea To End The War

Polish-born French writer Marek Halter, who fled the Nazis to the USSR, has known Vladimir Putin for 30 years. Halter sent the Russian president a long letter on May 18, and later shared a copy of it with Les Echos. In the letter, he lays out the path for Putin to renounce the war without undermining Russia’s standing.

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Ukraine Peace Talks: Erdogan’s Chance To Cement Turkey As Key Power Broker

After more than a month of fighting, a fresh round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine has begun in Istanbul in the hope that progress can be made. Following weeks of fruitless talks in Belarus, negotiations were hosted by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who made a short opening statement telling both sides: “The world is waiting for good news, and good news from you.” Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage. Sign up to our free daily newsletter. The very fact that talks have moved from Belarus, a key Russian ally, […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Russia-Ukraine: What Compromise Would Look Like, And How We Get There

The war continues to rage as negotiations sputter. However, the search for a compromise that’s honorable for both parties is the only way to avoid escalating violence. There is a way to build the proverbial “golden bridge” of retreat for all.

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In The News

In Troubled Times, What People Want

People don’t give a damn about Putin, NATO, Ukraine, communism, democracy, freedom, gas, oil, national sovereignty, ideals. They don’t give a damn about each and every word, thought or opinion. People are just afraid of war. People want to live. ____________________________ Learn more about Worldcrunch’s exclusive Dottoré! series here.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Any Means, All Fronts: Netanyahu’s Shadow War On Iran

The Israeli Prime Minister has taken his cue from a bold predecessor, Menachem Begin, to curb Islamic Iran’s regional presence and nuclear threat by any means necessary.

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In The News

Colombia’s Indigenous Self-Defense Troops Go Without Guns

Rural communities that have lost leaders to targeted killings have taken to protecting themselves, and without the use of firearms.

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OneShot Society

30 Years Later: Looking Back on Mandela’s Release From Prison

Like the entire story of his life, Nelson Mandela’s release from Victor Verster Prison exactly 30 years ago helped define the 20th century. Having served 27 years for leading the opposition to South Africa’s racist system of Apartheid, his release brought to an end white minority rule. Four years later, Mandela would be elected president as the nation sought to find peace and reconciliation after decades of oppression. But it was his release on February 11, 1990 became the iconic moment marking the change. After nearly three decades behind bars between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison, the […]

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In The News

Next Move Tehran? Iran Buries General, Plots ‘Strategic Revenge’

With a battered economy and recent anti-government street protests, can Iran fulfill its promise to avenge the U.S. killing of Qasem Soleimani? Can it afford not to?

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Geopolitics

Next Up, Colombia: Why Latin American Protests Keep Spreading

Colombians are the latest in Latin America to take to the streets, in what may be the ‘first clang of the bell’ of many aimed at President Ivan Duque.

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In The News

Same Old Faces: Rebel FARC Faction Has A Youth Problem

The decision of some prominent members of Colombia’s disbanded FARC rebels to resume fighting the government is bad news. But history — and demography — are working against them.

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OneShot Society

Fifty Years Later, Iconic Woodstock Photograph Still Makes Waves

Burk Uzzle’s image of loving (and muddy) couple at Woodstock has become a symbol for the 1960s hopes for a better future.

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In The News

Armenia And Azerbaijan, A Fragile Truce After 25 Years

May marked the 25th anniversary of the ceasefire that ended Armenia and Azerbaijan’s war for the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. It wouldn’t take much to reignite fighting.

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In The News

Oslo Accord For Venezuela? Norway’s Conflict Resolution Redux

The Norwegians have a mixed history of conflict mediations in recent decades. Can their dubious track record lead to any success in Venezuela?

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Geopolitics

In South Sudan, Peace Does Not Make Hunger Disappear

The survival of more than 7 million people, 60% of the population, depends on international humanitarian aid.

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Ideas

Could A Colombia-Style Peace Process Work In Mexico?

New President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is calling for a paradigm shift in Mexico’s war on hyper-violent drug cartels. Colombia’s peace deal with the FARC may serve as a model.

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Geopolitics Ideas Migrant Lives

Let Them Lead: The Power And Insight Of Refugee Women

It’s time to recognize refugee women for what they are: intrepid organizers and providers, argues Liberian peace activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee.

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Geopolitics Society

Why Women’s Rights And Pakistani-Indian Peace Go Hand In Hand

From Rwanda to South Africa, examples abound of countries ending conflicts by boosting women’s rights and creating spaces for them to assume more leadership roles.

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Ideas

Hardline Revisited, Welcome To Iván Duque’s Colombia

BOGOTÁ — The peace accords signed two years ago with the demobilized FARC guerillas continue to divide Colombians politically, as do questions over how the country should go about ending the conflict with ELN rebels, solve the problem of drug production, and terminate the illegal businesses that have fueled so much barbarism over the years. […]

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In The News

Adios, Santos: An Appreciative Send-Off As Colombia’s Peace President Steps Down

The peace process he helped guide in Colombia isn’t perfect. Nor is it complete. But by ending the decades-old war with the FARC, outgoing President Manuel Santos definitely made his mark.

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In The News

Postcard From The Korean DMZ, The Last Cold War Border

Bill Clinton once called it ‘the most terrifying place on earth.’ A no-man’s land with barbed wire and robot sentries, the area between the two Koreas has also become an unlikely wildlife refuge.

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In The News

Buddha Inc? A Mindfulness Path For India To Reclaim Soft Power

NEW DELHI — Despite India’s recent progress, its international influence is not commensurate with its size, might and tradition. India is often criticized for being unable to punch above its weight, or even according to its weight. Time and again, we have noticed that economic strength and military might have their limitations. The potential for Indian soft power, however, is enormous, but has remained underutilized. On the occasion of Gautama Buddha’s birth anniversary, I posit that India should reclaim Buddha and his philosophy, including his practice of Vipassana, as an Indian ideological, philosophical and lifestyle export to the world at […]

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In The News

Next On The Korean Peninsula: Trump And Pyongyang Nukes

Kim Jong Un’s historic call for peace also included an unspoken message to U.S. President Donald Trump: North Korea won’t surrender its nuclear weapons easily. The agreement Kim reached Friday with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in declared “a new era of peace” and sought a formal end to the seven-decade-old Korean War. While it said both countries committed to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, it gave no details on concrete steps to achieve it. More ominously, North Korean’s state-run media released a commentary shortly after the agreement was announced calling on the U.S. to drop its “anachronistic hostile policy” and “bad […]

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In The News

Can A Violinist Stand In The Way Of War With North Korea?

With each passing day, war with North Korea seems to draw closer. Kim Jong Un continues to test his arsenal; Donald Trump issues new threats and nicknames his nemesis “Rocket Man“; Kim responds in kind, saying the U.S. president’s speech yesterday at the United Nations was “the sound of a dog barking.” Some say the […]

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In The News

France’s Libération: ‘Aung San Suu Kyi: A Nobel And A Massacre’

Libération, Sept. 19, 2017 Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday broke her silence on the violence in her Buddhist-majority country that has forced hundreds of thousands of minority Muslim Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. French newspaper Libération featured a picture of her with the headline “A Nobel and a massacre” splashed on […]

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In The News

The Many Dangers Of A Worldwide Nuclear Weapons Ban

WASHINGTON — This month, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will open for signature at the United Nations. Signatories will promise never to “develop, test, produce, manufacture . . . possess or stockpile nuclear weapons’; never to transfer weapons to other parties nor to receive them; and never to “use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.” The treaty’s aims, if they could be universally effected, are noble. After all, the prospect of nations — including, now, an international pariah like North Korea — facing off with their respective nuclear arsenals is horrific. Their renewed use in war would […]

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In The News

Embracing The Sounds Of Silence In A Swiss Abbey

Guests come to the Hauterive Abbey, outside of Fribourg, to get away from it all, take a few days to reflect, and keep quiet. Very very quiet.

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In The News

The Enduring Relevance Of Henry David Thoreau

-Essay- Does anyone even read Henry David Thoreau anymore? Today, July 12, marks the 200th anniversary of the American poet and philosopher’s birth. And much is being said and written about him — not all of it flattering. His work is “anecdotal,” some say. Or “irrelevant,” “juvenile” even. To answer the initial question, I do. […]

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In The News

Rwandan And Congolese Youth United Against Stereotypes Of Genocide

Though peace is far secure between the Democratic Republic Of Congo and Rwanda, organized efforts to bring their youth together are multiplying.

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In The News

No Messiah Can Solve The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict For Us

-OpEd- TEL AVIV — We know the importance of Messianism in Judaism. The figure of the Messiah is none other than the universally shared incarnation of hope. But while it might have been moving and comforting to imagine, by the rivers of Babylon or at the ruins of the Temple, a messenger of God bringing […]

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