Russia

During the Peloponnesian War, as powerful Athens prepared to put the independent-minded, but tiny, island of Melos to the sword, the Melians appealed to principles of honor and fair play in a bid to save themselves.

The Athenians scoffed, noting that "the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must." And suffer the Melians did -- alone and unassisted.

Georgia is a latter-day Melos. It has been battered by Russia's over-the-top reaction to what began as a shoot-out between Georgian troops and forces belonging to the Russian-supported… more

Russian forces have moved further into Georgia's rebellious province of South Ossetia, despite Georgia's call for a ceasefire. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ran for cover, saying Russian planes were flying over the presidential palace in his capital city. Russia's Prime Minister Putin has flown home from the Olympics, but President Bush was still in Beijing when he denounced Russia's "disproportionate" response” to explosive hostilities in the region. We catch up with events and get the background on a long running local dispute with international implications. What are… more

Many factors are involved in the present conflict but the central one is straightforward: the majority of the Ossetes living south of the main Caucasus range in Georgia wish to unite with the Ossetes living to the north, in an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation; and the Georgians, regarding South Ossetia as both a legal and an historic part of their national territory, refuse to accept this.

Twice in the past century, when the empire to the north weakened and Georgia declared its independence, the… more

Former Senior Director at the National Security Council and current Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Flynt Leverett, discusses how President Bush should handle Russia's invasion of Georgia, a U.S. ally. LINK to video

I was in Georgia as a stringer for The Times (London) when the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict first erupted at the end of 1990, in the context of the gathering decay of the Soviet Union. I must say that I never could have imagined then that this obscure dispute would one day hold the potential for creating a major international crisis.

This conflict has its roots in three factors: First is the desire of the Southern Ossetes, who up until 1990 formed an autonomous region of the Georgian Soviet… more

...If the deals go ahead, analyst Anatol Lieven warned, Washington would see even less cooperation from Russia on issues like halting Iran's enrichment of uranium - which the West fears is aimed at building a nuclear bomb. "Russian willingness to be helpful - wherever the United States needs the help - will go down by a couple of more rungs," said Lieven, a professor at King's College London and fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington... more

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