Latest news with #JohnsHopkinsSchoolofAdvancedInternationalStudies
Indian Express
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
End the bloodbath now!:Trump demands Ukraine meet Putin in Istanbul
US President Donald Trump Sunday urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for direct negotiations in Istanbul this Thursday, in what could be a pivotal moment in the push to end the war. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, 'President Putin of Russia doesn't want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.' 'At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the US, will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly! I'm starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin, who's too busy celebrating the Victory of World War ll, which could not have been won [not even close!] without the United States of America. HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!' he said. Putin has proposed holding direct talks 'without preconditions' on May 15 in Istanbul, saying the aim is to reach 'lasting peace' and to 'eliminate the root causes' of the conflict, now entering its third year. While Zelenskyy welcomed the shift in tone from Moscow, he emphasised that any negotiations must begin with a ceasefire. The Kremlin, however, appears reluctant to commit to a ceasefire before talks. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin is committed to finding a peaceful resolution but warned that military operations would continue in the absence of serious diplomatic engagement. Peskov accused Kyiv of avoiding negotiations and downplayed the notion of Western-backed peacekeepers, calling it unacceptable. He described Putin's offer for direct talks as 'very serious', aimed at addressing 'the root causes of the conflict,' and insisted it 'confirms a real intention to find a peaceful solution.' For months, Ukraine and its allies have argued that any Russian offer must first be tested through a genuine ceasefire. They've tried to persuade the Trump administration that Moscow's peace overtures are often used as delay tactics or diplomatic cover while the war grinds on. But with Putin's early-morning televised address on Sunday announcing the May 15 meeting, analysts believe Russia is trying to flip the narrative, and the pressure, back onto Kyiv. 'Putin's proposal puts the ball in Ukraine's court,' said Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Speaking to CNN, Radchenko warned that Zelenskyy could face mounting pressure to accept the invitation. 'Why? Because otherwise, he'll have to deal with Trump, who's going to say, 'Why are you undermining my peace initiative here? Why can't you just talk?,'' Radchenko said. So far, there's no indication that Ukraine will shift its position: ceasefire first, then negotiations. But with Monday's ceasefire deadline looming, and Trump publicly staking his peace credentials on the Istanbul meeting, Zelenskyy may soon face one of the war's most delicate diplomatic choices.
Yomiuri Shimbun
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Johns Hopkins Economist Recommends Asia Build More Ties As Trump Even More ‘Tariff-Pilled' Than In First Administration
Courtesy of Henry Farrell Henry Farrell NEW YORK — Henry Farrell, 54, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun that U.S. President Donald Trump seems to have become more 'tariff-pilled,' and Asian countries should start to build many more ties in a world where the 'sponsor is becoming less predictable.' The following excerpts from the interview have been edited for flow and clarity. The Yomiuri Shimbun: What is your view of the Trump administration's tariff measures? Henry Farrell: Obviously, he [Trump] is much more willing to use tariffs on a much grander scale than he was back in the first administration; the sheer scale of what has happened is … basically historically unprecedented. I think that he has become more convinced that tariffs obviously have much broader application than just trying to get the United States a better deal on trade. There's interest in using them for all sorts of other policy measures as well … some of which are traditional national security. He appears to have gotten further 'tariff-pilled' than he was before, in [the] belief that traditional financial sanctions are a bad idea for the U.S. dollar. Yomiuri: What do you think about the effects of these tariffs on the international order and how they will affect the United States? Farrell: I think that the effects are pretty substantial. I think that a lot of this has to do with not just … the size of the tariffs, but the ways that the tariffs are being deployed. There are negotiations that are happening, but it's not clear whether those negotiations are going to get anywhere … because there are some people in the administration, including sometimes Trump himself, who seem to think that tariffs are fundamentally a good thing. That is that they're not something that can be removed or added on. And furthermore, when people do talk about what the tariffs are there for, they often have wildly different reasons, and those reasons differ from day to day. I think that from the point of view of U.S. international partners and indeed adversaries, thinking about the international system, what this says to them is that there isn't any coherent U.S. picture of what that international system ought to be anymore, except for some kind of a system in which everybody defers to Donald Trump, everybody defers to the United States. We're in a situation where in some ways it is even worse, perhaps, than just sheer naked self-interest, because it's naked self-interest combined with a degree of whimsicality, which means that even if something looks to be in U.S. government interest, you have no idea of whether or not the U.S. government is going to shoot off its own foot. And this means that, in a sense, it becomes even more problematic, even more difficult to predict what your relations with this party are going to be like. Yomiuri: Why was Japan the first country to negotiate directly with the United States following Trump's 90-day suspension of reciprocal tariffs? Farrell: It appears to be more linked to his [Trump's] particular preferences and to any broader theory of how it might be strategically advantageous to negotiate with this partner ahead of that partner that doesn't. There usually is a lot of discussion internally … Like every country, they're trying to maximize their negotiating leverage. So it might help to work with one country before another. This does not seem to be an administration like that. If you're looking at this from the perspective of Vietnam, for example … Vietnam has, in some ways, tried to move closer to the United States over the last number of years than you might have expected, given both its history and its proximity to China. And clearly, from Vietnam's perspective, there is a certain amount of hedging going on, given the part of the world that it is in. But Vietnam is faced with the question, if you are on the one hand … dealing with an extremely erratic country that doesn't seem to have your interests at heart. And if you're dealing on the other hand with a rather predictable country that also doesn't seem to have your interests at heart, sometimes it can make better sense to go with the more predictable country, because you have less chaos associated with it. And especially given the really quite extraordinary amount of tariffs that were imposed upon Vietnam. I think that the local questions that Japan has is whether some of the traditionally difficult relations it has had with neighbors, such as South Korea, may be less important in a world in which the two have a significant degree of common interest. If you're thinking about this from the point of view of exporting powers which have a significant reliance upon high technology of one sort or another, there's actually quite a lot in common in interest between Japan and South Korea and indeed, to that matter, Taiwan. I do wonder whether, if you're in a world where your sponsor is becoming less predictable, you want to start building up a lot more informal ties very quickly, and figuring out what are the common areas that you can work together on, where you cannot necessarily rely upon the U.S. as much as you used to anymore, it is much more of an unknown quantity. I think that Japan has … if you see an increased move by countries which are still, to some extent, committed to something like the previous trade regime, here you can think about the European Union. You can also think about Canada, perhaps Australia. If there are moves by these countries, as there appear to be, to try to build up a deeper set of ties among themselves, should Japan become more integrated into them, and to what, how might that negatively affect its relationship with the United States under the current administration. Equally, it's not impossible that we're going to see a real economic substantial downturn happening in the United States as a result of what's happening. And that could also really change the strategic situation for Japan quite quickly as well. I really think we are in extremely chaotic times. It is extremely hard to predict what is going to happen in the world in three months, six months, nine months [or] a year. And it could be that Japan finds itself suddenly in a quite different position … although ambition suggests that there's a goal. Henry Farrell Farrell is a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Born in Ireland, Farrell is an expert in the international political economy. The co-author of 'Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy,' Farrell has also contributed to U.S. and European media outlets such as The New York Times.
CNN
15-04-2025
- Politics
- CNN
On GPS: US-Iran talks went ‘as well as expected'
American and Iranian officials held a "constructive" first round of nuclear talks in Oman yesterday, with plans to meet again next week. Will the Trump administration be able to negotiate a new deal? Fareed speaks with Vali Nasr, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
CNN
13-04-2025
- Politics
- CNN
On GPS: US-Iran talks went ‘as well as expected'
American and Iranian officials held a "constructive" first round of nuclear talks in Oman yesterday, with plans to meet again next week. Will the Trump administration be able to negotiate a new deal? Fareed speaks with Vali Nasr, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
NBC News
05-04-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
What Putin's two-faced strategy says about his approach to Trump and Ukraine
To the casual observer, Russia seems to be marching in two opposite directions. President Vladimir Putin sent one of his close allies, Kirill Dmitriev, to Washington this week for diplomatic talks, the most senior Kremlin official to visit since Russia invaded Ukraine. At the same time, Putin ordered the mobilization of 160,000 troops, his largest in 14 years, as his drones continue their nightly bombardment of Ukrainian civilians and he plans a spring offensive — if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to be believed. But these twin approaches perfectly illustrate Russia's strategy, according to some Western foreign policy specialists. They say that Putin is slow-walking talks with President Donald Trump so he can press his battlefield advance in Ukraine, while gambling on achieving normalized relations with a friendly White House. Putin 'thinks that time is on his side, and by dragging things out he'll put himself in an even better position to negotiate,' said Sergey Radchenko, a Soviet-born Cold War historian and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Mixed messages Having once promised to end Russia's war in Ukraine in 24 hours, Trump has found the reality to be far thornier. His team has tried to broker a ceasefire, but so far even a partial or temporary truce has been blocked by the Russians. Putin and his envoys have said they will only accept a truce if Ukraine agrees to extreme conditions tantamount to surrender and subjugation. Many Western officials and experts say Russia knows these cannot be accepted. 'Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,' British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters Friday at the headquarters of NATO in Brussels. 'We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing.' That frustration has been felt in the White House, which under Trump has taken a far friendlier approach toward the Kremlin than previous administrations. Trump told NBC News on Sunday he was 'pissed off' when Putin reiterated his view that Zelenskyy should be ousted. Trump's inner circle is advising him not to hold a call with Putin until he commits to a ceasefire, two administration officials told NBC News on Thursday. Familiar envoy This growing dissatisfaction explains why Moscow dispatched Dmitriev, according to Oleg Ignatov, a senior analyst on Russia at the International Crisis Group in Brussels. 'Dmitriev has direct access to Putin; in the Russian system, this is the most important thing a negotiator can have,' Ignatov said. He also 'has his own connections in the United States.' Dmitriev, 49, was born in Kyiv when it was part of the Soviet Union and heads the Russian sovereign wealth fund responsible for investing and growing the country's cash pile. He has a close relationship with Putin, who in February appointed him special envoy on international economic investment. Dmitriev studied at Stanford and got his MBA at Harvard before working for Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co. After meeting with Trump's officials, he did a round of broadcast interviews in which he talked up normalizing relations with Washington, Arctic cooperation and a minerals deal. He even said the Kremlin could be involved in Elon Musk's plan to put humans on Mars. Ukraine was mentioned in passing, but he did not mention it in his social-media summary of the trip. 'Without doubt, we note a positive dynamic in our relations,' he told journalists in Washington. 'A series of meetings will still be needed for us to resolve all our differences. But the main thing we see is a positive, constructive attitude.' The significance of Dmitriev's visit may lie in the fact he is not a career diplomat. 'His apparent closeness to Putin makes him more than just a messenger,' said Pavel Baev, a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a think tank. 'He appears to be a person who can really engage in bargaining and compromise.' Asked about Dmitriev's trip, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Moscow was 'cautiously optimistic.' Pressing ahead But, to be clear, Dmitriev's main task is clearly to re-establish links with Washington — rather than signal any drawdown in Ukraine ambitions, according to experts such as Robert Hamilton, a retired U.S. Army colonel and now head of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Dmitriev's mission 'signals that the Kremlin is interested in broadening the discussions with the U.S. and steering them away from Ukraine,' Hamilton said. 'What the Kremlin actually seeks is to sideline the Ukraine issue and pursue a broader reset with the U.S. that leaves Ukraine and Europe out of the process and frees Russia to continue its war.' Some saw evidence of that this week in Putin's announcement that the annual spring conscription draft would take on 160,000 recruits, the largest in 14 years. 'A clear signal it wants peace (not!)' Tymofiy Mylovanov, Ukraine's former economics minister, wrote on X. Some experts point out the draft is only slightly higher than in previous years, and by law the recruits are barred from participating in what Russia calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine. But it is nonetheless a symptom of Russia's growing militarization, a shift that has seen the entire economy retooled toward its war effort. In the short term, there are few signs Russia is slowing its war. One drone attack on Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv late Thursday killed five people and injured more than 30 others, officials said. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy told the French newspaper La Figaro last week he believes Putin is preparing a spring offensive. Russia's 'ceasefire intentions are, as far as I can discern, nonexistent,' Baev added. 'Dmitriev is most probably sent in order to wriggle out of a tight corner.'
