Reading Time: 5 minutes With the anniversary of the Ukraine-Russia War looming next month, the war is at perhaps its most attritional, most horrific, most heart-breaking. The loss of life there need never have happened. Assuming he survives this war, Vladimir Putin will one day have a lot to answer for. In a court. In The Hague. Russian propagandists […]
ukraine
Posted inWar and Peace
How do a conservative Christian and a liberal atheist agree on Ukraine?
Reading Time: 7 minutes A conservative Christian and a liberal atheist walk into a…YouTube interview and discuss their agreement on Ukraine. You could be forgiven for thinking there is little scope for agreement, but you would be wrong. How have they both arrived at the same destination—hosting YouTube channels giving daily geopolitical analyses of the War in Ukraine, with […]
Posted inSpirituality & Ritual
Warmth in winter
Reading Time: 4 minutes The solstice marks the passing of darkness. This year, it also points to a brighter future free from the dominion of petro-tyrants.
Posted inWar and Peace
He shouted too early: The impotence of Putin
Reading Time: 4 minutes The war in Ukraine is just about to have its terrible ten-month anniversary with no immediate end in sight. But even though it is not going to end in the coming weeks (absent a “black swan” event of Putin dying suddenly), there is still no chance of the Russian leader eking out a win. There […]
Posted inDrugs
Unpacking the legality of cannabis in Ukraine
Reading Time: 2 minutes The recent release of WNBA basketball star Brittany Griner, who had been jailed in Russia on charges of possessing and smuggling cannabis, raises questions about the role of cannabis in this region. The Soviet Union has the distinction of being among the world’s biggest manufacturers of hemp, which is used for oil, cloth, and food. […]
Posted inWar and Peace
Belarus Foreign Minister suddenly dies
Reading Time: 2 minutes Belarus has been inextricably linked to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. And although Putin has used the country and its land as a springboard to conduct offensives against its neighbor, extracting a huge proportion of its physical hardware in terms of tanks and military vehicles, the Belarusian armed forces are not themselves fighting. Belarus leader Alexander […]
Posted inWar and Peace
Erdoğan uses smoke and mirrors in deadly strikes against Kurds
Reading Time: 11 minutes Although Turkey is a historically secular country, President Recep Erdoğan is an authoritarian leader who, not unlike Vladimir Putin, has curtailed freedom of speech and press to solidify his continued rule. And much like Putin (whom he still calls “dear friend”), he has unduly influenced the judiciary and the rule of law with systemic purges.
Erdogan has sought to undo Turkey’s secular tradition by appealing to religious conservatives in the rural heartlands. Such a movement away from the secular credentials instilled by Atatürk at the nation’s founding has worried both Western governments and secularists alike. Now, Erdoğan is flexing his muscles on both the international and domestic stages.
Posted inWar and Peace
The Red Ripple won’t affect US support for Ukraine
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Red Wave never happened, and left-leaning seculars are generally very happy about this considering what might have happened. But for some, this is not just from a political standpoint concerning hot potatoes like Roe v Wade and women’s autonomy, but from the point of view of the geopolitics of the Russia-Ukraine War. The US […]
Posted inWar and Peace
War crimes in Ukraine: pacifists should support war crimes tribunals
Reading Time: 4 minutes A United Nations commission investigating the Ukraine-Russian War issued a report this week concluding that Russian forces have committed the “vast majority” of war crimes in the conflict. But it also found two cases in which Ukrainian forces committed war crimes. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine counts as the first criminal act. And then there were […]
Posted inWar and Peace
Beware the glory of war
Reading Time: 5 minutes I admit it: I’m a Ukraine news addict. I’ve gotten into the habit of starting each morning by checking a Reddit forum like r/UkrainianConflict, or the Twitter accounts tracking events in the war, or some of my fellow columnists on OnlySky. Why we follow the Ukraine war Thanks to social media, we know more about […]