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Ukraine and the Zero-Sum Impulse
Paul R. PillarIt is perhaps unsurprising, but nevertheless unhelpful, for so much of the discussion in the United States about policy toward Ukraine to be fueled by Cold War-type juices that the crisis...
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Putin's Instructive Speech
Paul R. PillarVladimir Putin's speech about Russia's annexation of Crimea was a rhetorical tour de force and an apt accompaniment to his regime's tactical skill in pulling off the annexation, however...
View ArticleRussia, Sanctions, and Politics in Iran
Paul R. PillarThe crisis over Crimea has naturally raised questions about possible effects of this disturbance on other issues and specifically ones that depend on U.S.-Russian cooperation. This...
View ArticleThe Sheldon Primary
Paul R. PillarFrom the 1890s until finally outlawed by the Supreme Court some fifty years later, one device used in the segregated South to maintain the white power structure and to prevent blacks from...
View ArticleThe Forgotten Principles of Deterrence
Paul R. PillarAn irony of how the events in Ukraine and the associated altercation with Russia have thrown many commentators and policy critics into a Cold War mode is that those same commentators and...
View ArticleWho Sticks Up For Israeli Arabs?
Paul R. PillarThe hang-up in current well-intentioned U.S. efforts to wring out of Israeli-Palestinian talks something that could be called a framework agreement—with the administration evidently so...
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NATO Expansion and the Road to Simferopol
Paul R. PillarBeyond the policy issue of what to do now to bring the crisis with Russia over Ukraine to as much of a satisfactory conclusion as may be possible, we ought to reflect on our own role—the...
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A Peril to the Iran Nuclear Deal
Paul R. PillarThere exists, right now, a problem with one side's obligations not being fulfilled as provided for under the preliminary agreement, known as the Joint Plan of Action, that Iran reached...
View ArticleThe Folly of the Pollard Ploy
Paul R. PillarAlthough it looked for a time, after the latest breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process,” that the notion of trying to buy some cooperation from Benjamin Netanyahu by freeing...
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The Aboutalebi Affair in Context
Paul R. PillarThe Obama administration has to perform a balancing act in handling the Iran account. One one hand it has the task, along with its diplomatic partners, of completing negotiations with...
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What To Do After Peace Process Failure
Paul R. PillarNow that Secretary of State Kerry's attempt to breathe life into the diplomacy known as the Middle East peace process has been widely pronounced—even by those who appropriately salute his...
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The Prize for Fencing Stolen Goods
Paul R. PillarPrize-awarding committees sometimes use their decisions to make some sort of political or policy statement. The committee that bestows the Nobel Peace Prize seems to have done so with...
View ArticleTwists of History and Interests in Ukraine
Paul R. PillarImagine that the collapse of Soviet communism more than two decades ago had taken a different form than it did. It might have done so, if the dramatic and fast-moving events of 1991and...
View ArticleThe Need for Iranian Oil and Gas
Paul R. PillarDeliberations about imposing costs on Russia for undesirable behavior in Ukraine quickly run into several snags, among which is that any sanctions that would significantly hurt Russia...
View ArticleHamas and the Tyranny of Labels
Paul R. PillarThere is little reason for anyone to get very exercised, either with enthusiasm or with dismay, over the latest announced reconciliation between Hamas and the Fatah-dominated Palestine...
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