FOCUS
- June 22, 2022. By Gerard DiPippo, CSIS. Western governments imposed a series of financial, trade, and travel sanctions on Russia starting in late February in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. With almost four months of observations and data, Western policymakers are assessing the economic impact of the sanctions, weighing the risks of increasing pressure on Russia with new sanctions, and considering how the sanctions might plausibly contribute to an end to the war. Strangling the Bear? The Sanctions on Russia after Four Months
AROUND THE WORLD
Africa
- June 22, 2022. By Aloysius Uche Ordu and Julius Kiiza, Brookings. Julius Kiiza, professor of political economy of development at Uganda’s Makerere University, discusses Africa’s regional integration efforts as well as the integral role of women and technology in the success of the endeavor. Re-approaching Africa’s economic integration agenda
- June 22, 2022. By Danielle Resnick, Brookings. Twenty years ago, UN-Habitat convened the first World Urban Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, to address the challenges of managing rapid urbanization and harnessing its potential. On June 27, 2022, the biennial event will launch in Katowice, Poland with a focus on addressing the range of concerns confronting cities today, from rising food prices to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on local finances to the threats from climate change on infrastructure and housing. These and other crises are viewed as potential barriers to achieving holistic urban transformation, as conceived in the UN’s New Urban Agenda and epitomized by Sustainable Development Goal 11’s aspiration to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”. Realizing the New Urban Agenda in Africa: The centrality of local politics
Belarus
- June 22, 2022. By Grigory Ioffe, The Jamestown Foundation. Uncertainty hangs over Belarus’s geopolitical situation. Will the Belarusian army eventually join Russia’s war effort? Will those issuing Western sanctions distinguish between Russia and Belarus? Are there any prospects whatsoever in mending fences with the West? Thus far, no definitive responses to these questions can be found. Belarus’s Geopolitical Uncertainties and Its ‘Civilizational Choice’
Russia – Ukraine
- June 22, 2022. By Karolina Hird, Mason Clark, George Barros, and Grace Mappes, ISW. Reinforced Russian air-defense systems in eastern Ukraine are increasingly limiting the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones, undermining a key Ukrainian capability in the war. Foreign Policy’s Jack Detsch quoted several anonymous Ukrainian officials and military personnel that Ukrainian forces have largely halted the use of Turkish Bayraktar drones, which were used to great effect earlier in the war, due to improvements in Russian air-defense capabilities. Ukrainian officials are reportedly increasingly concerned that US-provided Gray Eagle strike drones will also be shot down by reinforced Russian air defense over the Donbas. Ukrainian forces have reportedly scaled back air operations to 20 to 30 sorties per day and are facing a deficit of available aircraft for active pilots. Russian forces are likely prioritizing deploying air defenses to eastern Ukraine to nullify Ukrainian operations and to protect the artillery systems Russian forces are reliant on to make advances. However, the Ukrainian air force and armed drones remain active elsewhere, inflicting several successful strikes on targets in Kherson Oblast in the last week. Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 22
Tajikistan – Afghanistan – Russia – China – USA
- June 22, 2022. By John C. K. Daly, The Jamestown Foundation. In the ten months since seizing power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has consistently stressed that its political control has eliminated armed unrest in the country. But undercutting the mullahcracy’s confident assertions is ongoing resistance centered in the northern Panjshir and Baghlan provinces. Last month (May), the National Resistance Forces of Afghanistan (NRF), a loose alliance of anti-Taliban factions consisting primarily of former members of the country’s military and police (many of them trained by the United States military), recently announced a new offensive against the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate (IE) to “liberate” the Panjshir and Andarab valleys (Hasht e Subh, May 8). Russia, China and the US Assist Tajikistan in Strengthening Its Troubled Border With Afghanistan
Ukraine – Europe
- June 22, 2022. By Nick Fouriezos, Atlantic Council. As European heads of state deliberate this week over whether to give Ukraine candidate status in its efforts to join the European Union (EU), Secretary General of the European External Action Service Stefano Sannino said: “I feel comfortable and I feel optimistic saying that the decision will be a positive one,” though he didn’t want to get ahead of “our political bosses.”. Top EU official ‘optimistic’ about Ukrainian membership move this week
Ukraine – Poland
- June 22, 2022. By Jakub Bornio, The Jamestown Foundation. Poland proved itself to be Ukraine’s crucial hinterland from the outset of Russia’s large-scale re-invasion, launched on February 24. When hostilities intensified, Poland started to take in thousands and eventually millions of Ukrainian refugees and serves as a transport hub for Western military deliveries to Ukraine’s defense forces (see EDM, February 25). As the war dragged on, Polish-Ukrainian bilateral relations only strengthened. Polish-Ukrainian Relations Intensify as a Result of Russian Aggression (Part One)
USA
- June 22, 2022. By Elaine Kamarck, Brookings. Mike Pence seems to be using a strategy that tiptoes around his relationship with Donald Trump. He was, as would be expected, a loyal vice president. And yet in the final days he broke from his president when Trump pressured him to, single handedly and without any legal basis, reject the electoral college votes from states Trump had lost. Tiptoeing around Trump—will Mike Pence’s strategy work?
- June 22, 2022. By Cameron F. Kerry, Brookings. After almost four years of effort and in a highly polarized political environment, any bipartisan agreement is a huge deal. That’s why the June 3, 2022 release of a bipartisan “discussion draft” from party leaders on both sides of the Congressional committees that oversee consumer protection and technology issues have galvanized the national privacy debate. Endgame On: The narrowing path ahead for privacy legislation
- June 22, 2022. By Henry J. Aaron, Brookings. On May 13, 2019, Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, signed SHB 1087 establishing WA Cares, a state-level program to provide qualifying Washington residents up to $36,500 to cover the cost of long-term services and supports (LTSS). The future Of WA Cares: A response to Warshawsky
DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY, CYBER
- June 22, 2022. By Gregory D. Foster. Defense One. To philosophers G.W.F. Hegel and George Santayana we owe the conjoined recognitions that we learn from history only that we learn nothing from history; and that where we thus fail to learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it. These are truths become axiomatic truisms. What Lessons Can We Learn From Russia’s War on Ukraine?
- June 22, 2022. By
- June 22, 2022. By
- June 22, 2022. By Stephen Losey, Defense News. The planned acquisition of Israeli firm RADA Electronics Industries by Leonardo DRS is driven in part by lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, according to the head of the Arlington, Virginia-based company. Ukraine lessons helped drive acquisition of RADA, Leonardo DRS chief says
- June 22, 2022. By
- June 22, 2022. By
- June 22, 2022. By James Andrew Lewis, CSIS. One should consider the proposed antitrust legislation now pending in Congress not as a lawyer or academic, but as a hacker. For hackers, some provisions of the bills under consideration will be the gift that keeps on giving. Cyber Crime and Antitrust
