From the latest issue of the Journal of Eurasian Affairs, Alexander Dugin (Moscow State): The Multipolar World and the Postmodern; Seyyedeh Motahhareh Hosseini (Tehran): US Presence in Eurasia and Its Impact on Security and Military Arrangements of This Region; Andrew Corybko (MGIMO): Russia and the United States: Incompatibility of Identities or Great Power Competition?; Gabor Vona on some thoughts on the creation of Intellectual Eurasianism; and Evgeniy Fyodorov on the National Liberation Movement in Russia today. Leon Aron on why Putin says Russia is exceptional: Such claims have often heralded aggression abroad and harsh crackdowns at home. Putin welcomed Kazakhstan and Belarus into a new Eurasian Economic Union built to rival the US, EU and China — but the absence of Ukraine undermined his dream of restoring Soviet glory days. As a muscled-up Russia pushes for more leverage over Kazakhstan, a wary Astana strives to make new, powerful friends. While sanctions, aid, and NATO actions all can help deter Russian adventurism in Ukraine, the greatest check it faces may be the force of Ukrainian public opinion. Sascha-Dominik Bachmann on Crimea and Ukraine 2014 and “protective interventionism”. Putin’s European adventures: The Russian president’s strategy towards Ukraine and the West may not have worked as well as he hoped. The scorecard in Ukraine is murkier than most pundits think. Stephen Walt on how anyone who says Russia is losing in Ukraine doesn’t understand how this game is played. Saying that Putin “blinked” is like saying that the boy who stole a cookie from a cookie jar blinked because he took only one cookie rather than all of them. This quote by Putin is the greatest act of projection ever: “When people push boundaries too far, it's not because they are strong but because they are weak”.
