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Europe

Russia Signals Minimal Desire for Peace

Russia Signals Minimal Desire for Peace

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — As Russia continues it's brutal bombardment of Ukrainian cities, talks between Moscow and the U.S. to end the war appear on very [...] More

The Latest

This is Perhaps Ukraine’s Most Dangerous Time

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Each of my eight trips to Ukraine since retiring from the CIA in the summer of 2023 has been filled with unique challenges. Each [...] More

Winter is Coming to Ukraine as it Faces a New Kind of War and Uncertainty About a Key Ally

Winter is Coming to Ukraine as it Faces a New Kind of War and Uncertainty About a Key Ally

EXPERT INTERVIEW — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Berlin on Monday for an intense round of diplomacy with top U.S. and European [...] More

Echoes of 1940: Learning from an Ally at War and Preparing the U.S. for the Next Fight

Echoes of 1940: Learning from an Ally at War and Preparing the U.S. for the Next Fight

EXPERT OPINION / PERSPECTIVE — Eighty-five years ago, as the United States cautiously explored an expanded alliance with Great Britain, our own [...] More

Russia is Waging a Sabotage Shadow War on Europe

Russia is Waging a Sabotage Shadow War on Europe

DEEP DIVE — In the darkness of night on November 15, a massive explosion ripped through a stretch of the Warsaw-Lublin railway line close to Mika, [...] More

Can Europe Survive the New Multipolar World?

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — For more than three decades after the Cold War, Europe lived under the illusion that history had settled in its favor. Liberal [...] More

Putin Sees “Useful Meetings”, the U.S. Should See a Trap Set for Inexperienced Negotiators

EXPERT OPINION / PERSPECTIVE -- Reports from Moscow suggest that U.S. representatives Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are “optimistic” about the [...] More

The Kremlin's Kill List: Inside a Culture of State-Sponsored Murder

The Kremlin's Kill List: Inside a Culture of State-Sponsored Murder

EXPERT OPINION / PERSPECTIVE — The 2024 spy swap between Russia and the West exposed a brutal truth: Moscow still treats innocent civilians as [...] More

The U.S. Needs to Restore Deterrence Credibility Against Putin

OPINION — President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan is a humanitarian attempt to halt the killing and destruction in Ukraine, although Russia’s [...] More

Do Oil Sanctions Still Work?

Do Oil Sanctions Still Work?

DEEP DIVE — On October 22, 2025, in his boldest move yet to force Vladimir Putin back to the negotiating table, President Trump unleashed sweeping [...] More

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

EXPERT OPINION – The recently leaked 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine is nothing short of an appeasement that satisfies the maximalist [...] More

A file picture taken 12 July 2007 shows the headquarters (aka Lubianka) of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the former KGB in Moscow.

Russia’s Intelligence Services After the War

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Russia’s intelligence services (RIS) have failed spectacularly in Ukraine: in planning, execution, and analysis, yet they will [...] More

A Constitutional Clash Over Trump’s War Powers in Venezuela

OPINION — “The question before the body is, can the Congress stop a military conflict declared by the Commander-in- Chief because we don’t agree with [...] More