World News Insights: Opinion Articles

For those shocked by images of Ukrainian civilians targeted by Russian air strikes, I have one word for you: Syria. Moscow’s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal war against his own people — including attacks on hospitals, schools,…

There is no world leader today with a better track record when it comes to using military power than President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Whether against Georgia in 2008, Ukraine in 2014 or in Syria since 2015, the Russian military has repeatedly converted battlefield successes into political…

The crisis around Ukraine had been looming for some time, with efforts to prevent further escalation. President Putin’s recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic has carried the crisis to the next stage. A day later, Putin took a further step…

The day before the fake “referendum” that handed Crimea to Vladimir Putin’s Russia in 2014, I marched against the annexation with tens of thousands other Muscovites — but a majority of Russians supported the move, and Putin’s popularity, measured by independent sociologists, soared to highs not…

There will be no ravaging World War III to end all life on earth. But there might be worse: protracted wars on multiple frontlines fought with traditional weapons and run by nuclear powers. Even without the prospect of a World War breaking out, the Ukraine crisis stretches far beyond Ukraine…

Just on Day One of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the European Commission, about 120,000 people fled their homes — becoming “internally displaced,” in the bureaucratic jargon. Roads and highways out of Kyiv and other cities were clogged. Again, that was just the first day. How many…

What environment do we want and what organization can lead international environmental action? On the verge of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), conceived at the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972, many questions remain…

It is too early to say we are seeing the beginning of World War III, of an international catastrophe whose consequences no one can foresee, or that the current crisis will end in the way that Vladimir Putin successfully gobbled up Crimea in August 2014 after the sanctions imposed by Barack Obama…

The Russian assault on Ukraine must be seen not only as a vicious aggression against a sovereign state violating international law, but a challenge to the entire Western-led global security order since World War II. As such this is the biggest challenge to that order since the Cuban Missile Crisis…

Kyiv’s residents have watched shells rain down on the city these past days as they did in 1941, then at the start of a brutal war in which Ukraine endured unthinkable suffering. As images circulate of families huddled in basements and in the city’s subway for safety while rocket strikes light up…

In the pandemic’s third year, we are beginning to discern the total picture of Covid-19’s damage. Beneath the coronavirus’s own staggering death toll and the suffering it has inflicted lie many layers of collateral damage. One of the largest of these is Covid’s disruption to cancer prevention and…

It’s too soon yet to know whether President Joe Biden will get any short-term, “rally around the flag” boost in his approval rating from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But after a very tough six months, it looks like his low numbers have stabilized for now, and perhaps even recovered a little. My…