What’s Behind NATO’s Tightening Ties with its Indo-Pacific Partners?

What’s Behind NATO’s Tightening Ties with its Indo-Pacific Partners?

Thursday, July 6, 2023

By: Mirna Galic

NATO’s summit in Madrid, Spain, in June 2022 marked the first time the four leaders of NATO’s Indo-Pacific partner countries — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea (ROK) — joined NATO counterparts for a meeting at the heads of state and government level. July 2023, at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, will mark the second. The high level of media attention paid to the attendance in Madrid of the Indo-Pacific partners, known informally as the Indo-Pacific Four or IP4, is likely to be repeated in Vilnius. Beyond this, what should Indo-Pacific watchers expect from the Vilnius Summit in terms of NATO-IP4 developments?

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

New Zealand Draws Closer to NATO with a Wary Eye

New Zealand Draws Closer to NATO with a Wary Eye

Thursday, July 6, 2023

By: David Capie

Until recently, if New Zealanders thought about their country’s links to NATO, it was likely the two-decade long deployment to Afghanistan that came to mind. But if there might have been some sense those ties lay in the past, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has brought them squarely back to public attention. New Zealand’s links as a non-member partner of NATO have been central to its response to the war, including channeling aid to Kyiv. Last June, Jacinda Ardern became the first New Zealand prime minister to attend a NATO summit, joining three other leaders from Australia, Japan and South Korea as NATO’s four Indo-Pacific partners (IP4).

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Mary Glantz on the NATO Summit and the Wagner Mutiny

Mary Glantz on the NATO Summit and the Wagner Mutiny

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

By: Mary Glantz, Ph.D.

Ukraine’s potential admission into the Euro-Atlantic security alliance will top the agenda at next week’s summit in Lithuania. While it’s unlikely that there will be any clear-cut decision next week, “the opinion in the alliance is leading toward Ukraine moving faster rather than slower” in terms of joining, says USIP’s Mary Glantz. “I think history is on Ukraine’s side right now.”

Type: Podcast

What Does the Wagner Mutiny Mean for Putin and His War on Ukraine?

What Does the Wagner Mutiny Mean for Putin and His War on Ukraine?

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.

Before Vladimir Putin launched his illegal war on Ukraine, the Russian-funded paramilitary Wagner Group was an infamous, shadowy tool of Moscow’s foreign policy, advancing its objectives in the Middle East and Africa. After Putin’s February 2022 invasion, the private miliary company — led by Putin’s former chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin — became a critical cog of the Russian military’s war effort. But as cracks emerged across Russian society and within the elite over the war, Prigozhin has been one of the most outspoken critics, alienating his adversaries in Russia’s defense ministry. Eventually, Putin sided with Priogzhin’s opponents ordering Wagner to be officially subsumed within Ministry of Defense.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

For a Future Peaceful Russia, Engage its Exiles Now

For a Future Peaceful Russia, Engage its Exiles Now

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

By: Dr. Angela Stent;  USIP Staff

To pursue his war on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has crushed the last of Russia’s once-vibrant civil society. He has imprisoned some 20,000 dissidents, throttled all independent media — and triggered an exodus of perhaps 1 million Russians, many of them young, educated and technically skilled. As the West helps Ukrainians’ immediate struggle to survive, any long game to defeat Putin’s assaults on Ukraine, international law and peace requires that we cultivate, not isolate, this new Russian diaspora. Whenever Russians become able to shape their country’s future after Putin, the new exiles will be potential allies of democracy and rule of law.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & Governance

15 Months on, Ukrainians Remain United on Freedom, Rule of Law

15 Months on, Ukrainians Remain United on Freedom, Rule of Law

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

By: Ambassador William B. Taylor

Two days into Ukraine’s unfolding counteroffensive, a soldier just back from one of the first probes into Russian defensive lines called me on WhatsApp, giddy with excitement, to report his unit’s unexpected success. “We were told to push them back 600 meters,” he said, “but we got so little resistance, we pushed them back six kilometers! The Russians were soft!”

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Like Ukraine, Myanmar Deserves International Aid

Like Ukraine, Myanmar Deserves International Aid

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

By: Gun Maw;  Yee Mon;  Min Ko Naing

Over decades of brutal military rule, Myanmar’s generals have sometimes shifted tactics but relied on one consistent strategy to ensure their grip on power — fomenting divisions within the population and fueling intercommunal violence. That repeated ploy finally failed in the upheaval that followed the 2021 coup. Today, the country has embraced an historic unity that brings together virtually every ethnic and political strand to oppose the ruling junta. Like Ukrainians, Myanmar's people are courageous, spirited and united, and willing to make great sacrifice in their fight for democracy.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & GovernanceGlobal Policy

Dislodging Putin’s Foothold in the Balkans

Dislodging Putin’s Foothold in the Balkans

Thursday, June 1, 2023

By: Harun Karčić;  Peter Mandaville, Ph.D.

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the Balkans can only be understood by considering Moscow’s malign influence in the region from a broader perspective. While Russia has specific objectives related to each individual country in the region, its overall objective is clearly to target the Western Balkans through a divide and rule approach, using multiple tools of influence. While the United States and its European partners focus on the war in Ukraine, Russia is taking the opportunity to nibble away at NATO’s borders and to sow discord in countries hoping to some day present a strong case for joining the European Union.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

The United States Should Lead the Push for Peace in Ukraine

The United States Should Lead the Push for Peace in Ukraine

Thursday, May 25, 2023

By: Mary Glantz, Ph.D.

Recent weeks have witnessed several calls for peace in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy just wrapped up appearances at the G7 Summit and the Arab League, urging support for his country’s peace plan. China recently followed up the release of its February 2023 peace plan by sending its top diplomat, Wang Yi, on a European tour and dispatched peace envoy Li Hiu last week to Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France and Russia. At no time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has there been so much momentum toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. The United States should seize this opportunity to play a leading role.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

It’s Not About Picking Sides: The Nonaligned Movement and Russian Aggression

It’s Not About Picking Sides: The Nonaligned Movement and Russian Aggression

Thursday, May 11, 2023

By: Andrew Cheatham

For nearly 80 years, the world has benefited from the post-World War II international legal prohibitions and norms outlawing aggressive war. While this relative peace and stability was threatened during the Cold War, a group of countries — called the nonaligned movement (NAM) — came together to declare their aversion to the bloc politics of the United States and the Soviet Union. This nonaligned movement championed key principles of the U.N. charter, including respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty and nonaggression.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy