Russia

Over the past decade, the Arctic has warmed by 0.75°C, far outpacing the global average, while Antarctic temperatures have remained comparatively stable. As Earth approaches 2°C warming, the Arctic and Antarctic may reach 4°C and 2°C mean annual warming, and 7°C and 3°C winter warming, respectively. Expected consequences of increased Arctic warming include ongoing loss of land and sea ice, threats to wildlife and traditional human livelihoods, increased methane emissions, and extreme weather at lower latitudes.

William James discusses the role of foreign and defense policy (specifically NATO and transatlantic relations) in the December 12 UK election.

The Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean workshop was held at the Harvard Kennedy School on 30–31 October 2019. The speakers' bios and presentations are now available.

After two weeks of compelling testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, it’s worth weighing what has emerged. Four conclusions stand out.

Over the past quarter century, nearly all major efforts at establishing a durable post–Cold War order on the Eurasian continent have foundered on the shoals of Ukraine. For it is in Ukraine that the disconnect between triumphalist end-of-history delusions and the ongoing realities of great-power competition can be seen in its starkest form.

The investigations into the telephone conversation that President Trump had with President Zelensky and the possibility of impeachment have dominated the American media. This singular focus could have harmful consequences for both Ukraine and United States. The strategic location of Ukraine has put it at the center of transatlantic security.

The last two impeachment investigations of the past half-century began with a third-rate burglary and an extramarital affair. They quickly expanded to question the credibility and ethics of the president, but never touched on America’s national interests in the weightiest geopolitical confrontations of their eras.

Having both entered U.S. government service in the second half of the 1980s, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice then spent three and a half decades alternating between making and shaping America’s foreign policies, and this extensive experience shows in their September 2019 book, To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth.

Nick Burns, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO during the Bush administration, joins Chris Jansing after President Trump announced the possibility that he could attend May Day celebrations in Russia next year to mark the 75th anniversary of World War II. Burns tells Chris that it's "something the President has to consider," noting that "we were allied with the Soviets to defeat Hitler."

It seems unlikely that Russia will again possess the resources to balance U.S. power in the same way that the Soviet Union did during the four decades after World War II. But declining powers merit as much diplomatic attention as rising ones do. Joseph S. Nye worries that the United States lacks a strategy to prevent Russia from becoming an international spoiler.