Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute

Ukraine Is More Than Wounded

by Ted Snider | Aug 21, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Getting a count of Ukraine’s dead that isn’t the output of someone’s propaganda machine is difficult to do. But the number of dead is indisputably a horror. Measuring the maiming of Ukraine solely in deaths, though, is an injustice to the depth of the Ukrainian wound. It is not just that using tens of thousands as the unit in which to measure the dead may be an understatement meant to maintain morale and keep Ukrainians fighting with the political West providing support. Deaths may be the worst way to scar a nation, but they are not the only way to scar a nation. The promise that the...

The Global South Stands Up

by Ted Snider | Aug 10, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive and chances of winning the war begin to show signs of falling apart, and the realization that, eventually, Ukraine will end the war only through negotiations begins to dawn, Kiev has begun a campaign of conferences to court the neutral global south, or what Russia now calls the global majority, to their diplomatic side. In June, Ukraine requested that the United States encourage several nonaligned countries that have declined to condemn Russia to gather in Copenhagen for a conference designed to entice them onboard the Zelensky peace proposal. The talks,...

Talking to Russia: Five Things You Won’t Believe Are Being Said Behind Closed Doors

by Ted Snider | Aug 2, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

On July 6, it was revealed that secret back-channel talks have been held between former U.S. officials and “prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin.” The U.S. officials do not represent the Joe Biden administration but have briefed the White House. Though no current U.S. officials have participated in the talks, on the Russian side, they have reached the lofty level of Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov. Now, “a former U.S. official directly involved in the talks” has revealed that those talks are ongoing and frequent. The official, who says he has “been visiting Moscow at...

Russia Will Not Renew International Grain Deal; Some Context

by Ted Snider | Jul 27, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Like the war that necessitated it, Russia’s decision not to renew the United Nations and Turkish-brokered grain deal is bad for the world but not wholly unprovoked. The deal allowed Ukraine safe passage for its grain laden ships through the mined and blockaded Black Sea ports so it could continue to export its agriculture to the world. On July 17, Russia announced its decision not to renew the deal. It has repeatedly been reported that Russia’s decision is retaliation for Ukraine’s recent sabotage of the Kerch Strait bridge that links Crimea to the Russian mainland. But President Vladimir...

Was ‘No NATO Expansion East’ More Than a Promise?

by Ted Snider | Jul 17, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

At the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, eventual membership in NATO was promised to Ukraine and Georgia with the statement that “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agree today that these countries will become members of NATO." Russian President Vladimir Putin “flew into a rage,” and, according to a Russian journalist quoted by John Mearsheimer, warned that "if Ukraine joins NATO, it will do so without Crimea and the eastern regions. It will simply fall apart." A decade and a half later, Putin sent the message to Ukrainian President...

As America’s Influence Wanes, China’s Grows

by Ted Snider | Jul 6, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

In recent weeks, the world has been vibrating with multipolarity in ways barely picked up by the mainstream news. Iran is a regional power that pursues a foreign policy that defies U.S. hegemony and refuses to get in line with the American vision of a unipolar world. Punishing that defiance is the key U.S. strategy for maintaining hegemony in the region, including coalition with Saudi Arabia. The Saudis abandoned that coalition in March with the Chinese-brokered agreement to resume diplomatic relations with Iran and the June announcement that Iran had reopened their embassy in Riyadh. They...

Prigozhin’s Rebellion: What Just Happened in Russia?

by Ted Snider | Jun 28, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader the Wagner group, has ended his siege of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and turned around his march on Moscow. It is not clear what happened nor what was staged and what was real. Each expert and commentator offers a different expert commentary. To the West, the event was an attempted coup that revealed the cracks in the Russian government and military that leaves President Vladimir Putin badly weakened. Others say it was not really an attempted coup at all and that a still calm Putin quickly and decisively ended the crisis with little bloodshed. It is...

Is Putin Bluffing on Redlines? Ask Putin

by Ted Snider | Jun 22, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

On June 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with war correspondents and military bloggers for a question and answer session at the Kremlin. One war correspondent asked Putin “a question about the notorious red lines.” Addressing Putin, he said, “Clearly...we are at war not just with the Kiev regime, but with the so-called collective West as well. NATO countries are constantly moving and crossing our red lines. We express our concern and keep saying that this is unacceptable, but never come up with actual answers. Are we going to keep moving our red lines?” That is a question top...