Analysis & Opinions

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the current Belarusian opposition leader, speaks with Belfer Center Fellow Svenja Kirsch on Belarusian Freedom and the War in Ukraine.

Russia's permanent UNSC membership and presidency of the Council in April 2023 in the context of the country's war in Ukraine represents a mockery of the United Nations as an institution. To better position the UN to address Russia's continued defiance of international law, the UN and the UNSC need to be reformed. Given the difficulty of long-term reform, a set of short-term tools should be employed to address Russia's disregard of the institution's mission of peace.

The following is an event write-up about the recent Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship (PETR) seminar on “France’s Global Role in a Changing World Order” co-moderated by Natalie Colbert, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and Svenja Kirsch, Fellow with PETR, on April 19, 2023.

NATO itself must strengthen its presence in the Black Sea via Romania and Bulgaria and invest in ramping up Moldova’s security against a Russian invasion. Additionally, the United States and its partners should intensify sanctions against Russia to limit its fleet construction. It should also pressure countries such as India that are taking advantage of sanctions against Russia to increase their trade with the aggressor state.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, the West has provided billions in military and economic assistance aid to Kyiv. The United States alone has provided more than $8 billion in security support in the last six months. The money and arms are making a difference on the battlefield. The recently delivered U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), for example, have allowed Ukraine to launch counteroffensives in the southeast and repel attacks elsewhere.

Less than two weeks into Putin’s Ukraine War, the conflict has already left much of the country in ruins. After encountering unexpectedly tough resistance from Ukrainian forces in the initial days of the invasion, the Russian military has since focused its efforts on the indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian towns and cities. 

A normative vision for the future, it represents both a clear growth strategy and a route to a political union for the bloc. Yet, as has been made clear at the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this week, the EU — responsible for only around 8 percent of global emissions — is but a small part of the global picture. And a green Europe can only be realized if it’s a global one too.  

From Afghanistan to the AUKUS alliance, the brief honeymoon between the European Union and U.S. President Joe Biden’s America looks to be over. But it’s important to remember, after the overinflated optimism that followed the end of the Trump years, that transatlantic relations have always had their frictions and frustrations, their ups and their downs — and we’re ready for a rebound once again.

In the wake of the United States’ shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan, European leaders have done little to conceal their frustration with the U.S. president’s foreign policy.

What will Angela Merkel and Joe Biden discuss during the Chancellor's visit to the USA? Listen in for more. [translated from German; interview in German]