Russia

This article is adapted from Parag Khanna's book The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.

The term "second world" has fallen out of use. It used to mean countries of the socialist world; today I use the phrase to refer to those countries in eastern Europe and central Asia, Latin America, the middle east and southeast Asia which are both rich and poor, developed and underdeveloped, postmodern and pre-modern, cosmopolitan and tribal -- all at… more

Can the U.S. redeem itself overseas? (Salon.com)

Author Parag Khanna considers global superpowers and whether the United States can regain its standing in the world, here on Big Think, presented by Video Dog on Salon.com.

In shifting power, the rise of manifold destiny; If a struggle for resources unfolds between East and West, democratic values could be in for a battering (Toronto Star)

... "For countries like Russia that have been kicked around and patronized by the U.S., a multi-polar world is something of an article of faith," says Anatol Lieven, author of America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism. "The same may be true of China."

Many believe that in recent years… more

No blows likely over Kosovo split, but chill between Russia and West seen deepening (The Associated Press)

...Detaching Kosovo from Serbia will likely aggravate disputes over a host of sensitive security issues ranging from missile defense to NATO membership for the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine.

"There are several different issues coming together that's what makes it so dangerous," said Anatol Lieven, a Russia expert who is a professor at King's College London and a senior fellow of… more

Turn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it's 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead. Democrats believe they can hit a reset button, and Republicans believe muscular moralism is the way to go. It's as if the first decade of the 21st century didn't happen -- and almost as if history itself doesn't happen.… more

The intersection of ongoing structural shifts in international energy markets with strategic trends in global financial markets poses the most profound challenge to American hegemony since the end of the Cold War. In 2006, Pierre Noël and I wrote in these pages about an "axis of oil" -- a loose and shifting coalition of energy-exporting and -importing states, anchored by Russia and China, that is emerging as a counterweight to the United States (so far, most notably in Central Asia… more

What will Putin’s legacy amount to? For starters, let us dispense with a giant "red herring" that too many Western commentators have pursued for far too long.

What I am referring to is the question of whether Putin is a “democratic reformer” -- or a “Soviet authoritarian.”

The answer, of course, is that Putin is an authoritarian reformer. He is profoundly committed to reforms intended to make Russia into a successful modern state. But at the same time,… more

Our meal with President Vladimir Putin took place at the presidential villa at Novo-Ogaryevo in 2006.

The drive to the presidential village was a short tour of the world of the new Russian elite -- which is now not so very new anymore, given the years that have passed since the Soviet collapse.

The road led through the former village of Zhukovka, now containing enormous villas -- some almost as large as that of the president.

We… more

The Bush administration likes to boast that it has dramatically cut the size of the nation's nuclear stockpile. Meanwhile, it's busily trying to shore up congressional support for multibillion-dollar proposals to "modernize" the bristling U.S. arsenal. A world that's skeptical about the last superpower's intentions only gets more so when U.S. officials push unconvincing lines about the world's deadliest weapons. So here are a few myths about the U.S. nuclear posture of which the administration seems particularly fond.

He was a poet, a singer and a voracious reader. He memorized works by Gogol and Chekhov and amused himself with Thackeray, Balzac and Plato. At seminary, he'd sneak his worldly texts in and read by candlelight, sometimes hiding the banned books in stacks of firewood. He intensively studied Esperanto when he thought it the likely language of the future. "He didn't just read books," said a friend. "He ate them."

He had a lovely voice and was often hired to… more