War & Peace by International Crisis Group

04.23.2024

Moldova’s Restive Separatists, Russia Worries, and EU Aspirations

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga and Elissa speak with Crisis Group’s Oleg Ignatov, Senior Russia Analyst, and Marta Mucznik, Senior EU Analyst, about Moldova’s increasingly fraught relations with its breakaway region of Transnistria and Gagauz autonomous region,...

03.19.2024

Can Nuclear Arms Control Survive a Changing World Order?

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga and Elissa talk to Joe Cirincione, author and a leading expert on arms control and national security, about the demise of arms control and the threat of nuclear war in a rapidly...

02.23.2024

Two Years Into Full-Scale War, What Ukraine Needs and What its Backers Can Give

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga and Elissa are joined by Alissa de Carbonnel, Crisis Group’s Deputy Europe and Central Asia Director, and Simon Schlegel, Senior Ukraine Analyst, to talk about the latest developments along Ukraine’s front lines...

02.06.2024

Maritime Security in the Red Sea: What Role for the EU?

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga and Elissa are joined by Camille Lons, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, to talk about how Europe is responding to rising tensions in the Red Sea. They discuss...

12.20.2023

Is Moscow the Big Winner from War in the Middle East?

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga and Elissa are joined by Hanna Notte, Director for Eurasia at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, to assess Russia’s stance on the war in Gaza, how Russia is looking to...

12.05.2023

Europe’s Struggle to Respond to the Gaza War

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga and Elissa talk with Julien Barnes-Dacey, Middle East and North Africa Program Director at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), to assess Europe’s response to the Gaza war. They unpack different...

11.21.2023

Time to Talk? Assessing the Plausibility of Negotiations in the Russo-Ukrainian War

In this episode of War & Peace, Olga talks with Samuel Charap, Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation, about whether the current moment makes negotiations to end the war in Ukraine more or less advantageous for all concerned. They...

10.24.2023

Why Women Fight: Gender Dynamics in Insurgencies and Armies

Throughout history, women have been involved in conflict: as soldiers, as insurgents and as civilians. Yet, the ways in which men and women are treated on and off the battlefield and the contributions they make can vary widely, shaped in...

10.10.2023

The Days After: Humanitarian Crisis and Prospects for Peace in Karabakh and the Region

In the first episode of a new season of War & Peace, Olga Oliker is joined by Crisis Group’s South Caucasus experts, Olesya Vartanyan and Zaur Shiriyev, to talk about the implications of Azerbaijan regaining control of Nagorno-Karabakh in a...

07.28.2023

NATO’s Vilnius Summit and Baltic Security

On 12 July, NATO concluded its two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. At the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the decision to hold the meeting in one of NATO’s newer members and a country claimed by the Soviet...

07.12.2023

Ukraine’s Male Travel Ban and the Protection of Civilians in Wartime

War, by definition, takes terrible tolls on civilian populations. Just what risks a given person faces depends on many factors, including gender, class and geography. While international law has evolved to protect both civilians and combatants at war, it is...

06.30.2023

The War in Ukraine: Rallying Point for the Left or New Neocon Adventure?

Western support for Ukraine’s war against Russia has faced continued scrutiny. Critics have compared the conflict to past American wars of choice, such as the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which were informed by neoconservative foreign policy, aiming to promote...

06.29.2023

Bonus Episode: Is This the End? Wagner in Russia, Ukraine and Africa

Today we're bringing you a bonus episode on the attempted insurrection by Wagner forces in Russia from Crisis Group's global podcast Hold Your Fire! Over the weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private security company known as the Wagner...

06.13.2023

Escalation in Northern Kosovo: Causes, Dangers and Prospects

On 29 May, a group of ethnic Serb protesters clashed with troops of the NATO peacekeeping force KFOR in the town of Zvečan in northern Kosovo. Demonstrators were angry at the Kosovo government’s decision to instal ethnic Albanian mayors, elected...

06.02.2023

What to Expect from Five More Years of President Erdoğan in Türkiye

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker speaks with Crisis Group’s Türkiye Director Nigar Göksel about the Turkish elections and how President Erdoğan’s new term might shape the country’s domestic and foreign policy. Last Sunday, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan...

05.16.2023

Increasingly At Odds: What’s Shaping the EU-China Relationship?

The EU’s relations with China have long been complex. With China’s influence expanding globally and the U.S. increasingly viewing Beijing as its primary competitor, the EU and its member states have choices to make, choices further complicated by China’s close...

04.18.2023

Protests and Far-Right Politics in Israel and Europe

Israel’s new governing far-right coalition under Benjamin Netanyah has proposed judicial reform that would weaken the country’s judiciary. In response, Israelis have taken to the streets in protests, activism that has now gone on for months. The protests reflect not...

04.04.2023

Protests in Georgia and Tbilisi’s Complicated Relationships with Russia and the West

In early March, Georgians took to the street in Tbilisi to protest a bill that would have classified organisations and media groups receiving more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad as foreign agents. Although the ruling Georgian...

03.21.2023

Bert Koenders on the War in Ukraine and the Future of Europe

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has marked a watershed for Europe. The European Union (EU) and its member states acted quickly to implement sanctions against Russia, bolster Ukrainian defences and improve their own energy security. Now, over a year later,...

03.07.2023

Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression: Faint Prospect or Realistic Probability?

This episode of War & Peace draws on a live Twitter Spaces discussion between Olga Oliker, Elissa Jobson, Crisis Group’s UN Director Richard Gowan and its Senior Adviser for the U.S. Brian Finucane regarding the prospects for a crime of...

02.21.2023

Ukraine’s Jews, Israel and the War

Accusations of anti-semitism and nazism have been a leitmotif of the Russian-Ukrainian war from its start. Russian propaganda has consistently accused Ukraine’s government of ultra-nationalist and fascist tendencies since the conflict began in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin drew on...

01.24.2023

Kazakhstan One Year After "Bloody January"

2022 was a turbulent year for Kazakhstan. In early January, anti-government protests erupted across the country. The resulting clashes between police and demonstrators led to thousands of arrests and left more than 200 people dead. In response, President Kassym-Jomart Tokaev...

01.10.2023

Catherine Ashton on Diplomacy, Ukraine, and Her New Book

From 2009 to 2014, Catherine Ashton served as the European Union’s (EU) first high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. In that role, she was the EU’s senior negotiator for some of the most important international agreements of the...

12.21.2022

Understanding the Latest Escalation in Türkiye’s PKK Conflict

On 13 November, a bomb detonated in Istanbul’s busy Istiklal Avenue, killing six and wounding 81 people. Ankara blamed the attack on the PKK, a Kurdish militant insurgency, which has been in a decades-long battle with the Turkish military. The...

11.29.2022

Making Sense of Russia’s Changing Role in Africa

For more than a decade, Russia has made a concerted effort to strengthen its influence on the African continent. It has had some success. In countries like the Central African Republic and Mali, Russia has become the preferred partner for...

11.15.2022

A Closer Look at Ukraine’s Donbas after Russia’s Occupation

If war reached most of Ukraine in February of 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, the country’s eastern Donbas region has been torn apart by war since Russia, having occupied Crimea, undertook operations there in 2014. Since February, Russian...

11.03.2022

The Still-Perilous Path Toward Peace Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

It has been almost two years since a November 2020 ceasefire deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended a brutal six-week war. While the Moscow-brokered deal was meant to end large-scale combat operations, it hasn’t stopped regular flare-ups of armed violence...

10.18.2022

Bosnia and Herzegovina After the Elections

More than two weeks after the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 2 October, the country’s political future remains uncertain. While reformist and moderate candidates have seen success in the run for the country’s presidency – a position that is...

10.04.2022

Taking Stock of Russia’s Military Performance in Ukraine

On 21 September, Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation in Russia, marking a major escalation of the war in Ukraine. According to Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, 300,000 Russians could be added to the force, although how quickly is not...

07.12.2022

6.3 Million IDPs and a Humanitarian Crisis: Ukraine’s “New Normal”

Even if the war in Ukraine ended tomorrow, the country’s humanitarian needs would be colossal. Around 6.3 million people are displaced internally, with many still living in communal shelters not suited to the coming winter. While fighting rages on mostly...

07.06.2022

What it Means to Demine in Ukraine and Afghanistan

Landmines remain a tool of warfare around the world. Yet both during and after fighting, they wreak havoc not just on adversaries, but also on the civilian population. In mined areas, everyday activities such as farming crops or going to...

06.21.2022

Climate, Conflict and the Implications of Russia’s War on Ukraine

When world leaders convened at COP26 in November last year, climate was at the forefront of the global agenda. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has instead triggered a new “gold rush” for fossil fuels amid skyrocketing commodity...

06.08.2022

100 Days of War in Ukraine: Russia’s Offensive in the East

After failing to capture Kyiv, Russian forces have regrouped, with Moscow looking to solidify control of territory it holds in the south and east and to capture more land, including all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Artillery exchanges and positional...

05.25.2022

The Ukraine War: A Watershed Moment for EU Foreign Policy?

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been a watershed moment for EU foreign policy. Since then, the EU has mobilised €2 billion of military aid and levied some of the harshest sanctions ever imposed. At the same time, there is...

05.10.2022

Changing Dynamics in the Western Balkans

The Western Balkans, a region defined in part by not being in the European Union, also contains several countries that were devastated by war in the 1990s. Now it faces new troubles, driven in part by the legacies of the...

04.27.2022

Internal Displacement and Humanitarian Response in Ukraine

Russia’s war in Ukraine has created a huge displacement crisis, with nearly eight million people internally displaced and over five million fleeing abroad. As the fighting enters its third month, the war's immense humanitarian cost looks set to mount even...

04.12.2022

Can the OSCE Survive the Ukraine War?

The future of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is in doubt. Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in clear violation of the OSCE’s commitments to territorial integrity, sovereignty and human rights, has put unprecedented strain on the...

03.30.2022

The Ukraine War's Global Shockwaves

War continues to rage in Ukraine, over a month after Russia launched its large-scale invasion. Alongside its staggering humanitarian consequences, the war’s fallout has been felt widely around the globe – impacting everything from commodity prices to negotiations to finalise...

03.15.2022

Bonus Episode: The Ukraine War: A View From Africa

Today we're bringing you a bonus episode on the Russian war in Ukraine, from Crisis Group's podcast The Horn -- featuring War & Peace's new host, Elissa Jobson. Africa’s response to the Ukraine crisis has been far from united. Emerging...

03.08.2022

Turkey and Russia’s Complicated Relationship

Russia and Turkey’s complex relationship sometimes baffles outside observers. In many respects, Turkey and Russia are fierce competitors: Moscow and Ankara back opposing camps in Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh, and Turkey is a member of NATO – the alliance Russia...

03.01.2022

Bonus Episode: Russia's War in Ukraine

Today we're bringing you a bonus episode on the Russian war in Ukraine, from Crisis Group's global podcast Hold Your Fire! On Thursday 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the launch of, in his words, a “special military operation”...

02.15.2022

Where Can Europe Best Act for Peace?

The year 2022 looks set to be a challenging year for Europe. The EU must reckon with growing risks of conflict close to home: from a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine to rising ethnic tensions in the Western Balkans, the...

02.02.2022

How Does the EU Help Prevent Conflicts?

The president of the European Commision, Ursula Von Der Leyen, has vowed to create a more “geopolitical commission”, ramping up Europe’s external involvement and staking out an increasingly prominent place on the world stage. Though it has at times struggled...

01.18.2022

What Just Happened in Kazakhstan?

In early January 2022, an unexpected wave of protests swept across Kazakhstan. Initially provoked by a doubling of the price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG), the protests rapidly grew more political as they spread throughout the country, encompassing a wide...

01.04.2022

Could Citizens’ Assemblies Save Democracy?

A wave of democratic experimentation is defying conventional wisdom about electoral politics and good governance. Randomly selected citizens’ assemblies are becoming a popular tool for tackling complex policy issues. Ireland, France and Belgium, among others, have turned to citizens’ assemblies...

12.21.2021

What Does Belarus's President Lukashenka Want?

In 2020, Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenka cracked down on protesters challenging the results of an election in which he had claimed resounding victory, and on the opposition in general. The European Union (EU) refused to recognise Lukashenka’s regime and imposed...

12.07.2021

New Ways to Think About Nuclear Weapons

The threat posed by nuclear weapons is changing and policy-makers are struggling to keep up. As the Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference approaches, it is clear that the nuclear security field needs a new way of thinking. Nuclear-weapon states are expanding...

12.03.2021

Bonus Episode: Will Russia Invade Ukraine?

Today we're bringing you a bonus episode on the Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border, from Crisis Group's global podcast Hold Your Fire!. Olga Oliker, our War & Peace host and Crisis Group’s Europe and Central Asia director, and Oleg...

11.23.2021

One Year On from the Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh

On 10 November 2020, a Russian-brokered ceasefire put an end to a devastating war in Nagorno-Karabakh that killed some 7,000 people. But it did not bring peace. The year since has seen the situation grow increasingly uneasy. Both Armenia and...

11.09.2021

German Foreign Policy After Merkel

After sixteen years at Europe’s helm, Angela Merkel is stepping down from power. The federal election in September also marked an end to the long-term hold her political party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), had had over German politics. Merkel’s...

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