Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumStephen Cohen: The US and NATO Are Escalating Their Assault on Kerry and Putin’s Agreement
Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussion of the broadening US-Russian cold war and confrontation over Ukraine. The main focus is on escalating challenges to the agreement reached by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Sochi in May to implement the Minsk plan for ending the Ukrainian civil war through negotiations. Those challenges include Vice President Bidens repudiation of Kerrys trip to Sochi; the US-backed Kiev governments decision to blockade the pro-Russian enclave of Transnistria; a leaked Pentagon proposal to position, for the first time, heavy military weapons in countries on Russias borders; and a trip by UN Ambassador Samantha Power to Kiev. Other subjects discussed include how Putin may respond to these provocations and the possibility of a military escalation of the crisis, even involving aggressive deployment of nuclear weapons by both sides; Putins visit to Italy (and his meeting with the pope) in light of Obamas declared policy of isolating Russia; and why Putin remains so popular at home despite mounting economic hardships on the Russian people. Also discussed is a recent survey revealing that considerably less than a majority of citizens of Europes NATO states support the required mutual defense of a member country embroiled in a war with Russia.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/210113/stephen-cohen-us-and-nato-are-escalating-their-assault-kerry-and-putins-agreement-seek-d
bemildred
(90,061 posts)WASHINGTON A group advocating a more aggressive policy in Ukraine, Europe, the Middle East and Asia has been hired by the Pentagon to develop future military alliances in the regions as the Obama administration is moving more heavy weaponry into the Baltic states.
Pentagon records show the military's Office of Net Assessment commissioned the Center for European Policy Analysis for a study and war games called Gaming Allies: Geostrategic Change and Alliances on June 5. The office is traditionally quiet about the details of its studies; the contract announcement said CEPA will conduct "a study on shifting dynamics in U.S. alliance networks in East Asia, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe."
CEPA is led by A. Wess Mitchell, a former adviser to Republican Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, and the group receives much of its funding from a foundation run by Laurence Hirsch, a Dallas investment firm owner and large donor to Republican politicians.
Articles and academic papers written by Mitchell and other CEPA scholars have called for moving defenses closer to the borders of Eastern European and Baltic nations with Russia and abandoning the policy of "strategic patience."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2015/06/17/pentagon-war-games-europe-middle-east-asia/28861155/