OPINION: Expect 2019 to severely test global stability

The key passages of Mattis’ resignation letter include statements asserting that the United States cannot protect its interests or effectively serve its role as “the indispensable nation in the free world” without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to its allies. “[W]e must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances,” says Mattis. “It is clear that China and Russia… want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model.” These are implicitly harsh criticisms of Donald Trump, a president who has denigrated and insulted allies as close as Canada, Britain andGermany, and deferred to Russian president Vladimir Putin, often treating him as a friend. More, Mattis’ remarks are red flags signaling the prospective collapse of the institutions and common policies of democratic states – now in increasing peril.

Putin both retreats and advances. He publicly embraces Orthodox Christianity and refers glowingly to the doctrine of Eurasianism which stresses Russia’s separation from Europe. At the same time, he advances – piling pressure on neighboring Ukraine, most recently in the Sea of Azov which lies between the two countries, where Russian warships fired on poorly-armed Ukrainian vessels – part of Moscow’s overall strategy to, as Orysia Lutsevych writes, “prevent the Ukrainian state from delivering security, economic prosperity and closer integration with the EU and NATO for its citizens.” Putin is also ratcheting up pressure on Belarus, the smallest of the three Slavic states, to integrate more closely with Russia – a move which the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has so far resisted. Were Russia to bring Belarus back under direct Russian control and engineer a pro-Russian government in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, Putin’s new Slav empire would be a reconstruction of much of the Soviet Union.

NECTA Examination Results: Standard Seven pass rate rises to 85.22 percent

OPINION: Expect 2019 to severely test global stability

Latest

Rain leaves Mbeya residents homeless as floods sweep away 125 houses

Mkenda: Tanzanians’ innovations must undergo scientific verification

Lissu’s brother to be buried in Singida on November 10

Tanzania to review spending plans following MPs’ advice

Yanga, Simba, Azam get CAF approval to play group-stage matches at Uhuru Stadium

213,024 voters eligible for Wednesday’s Chamwino, 11 wards by-elections

In the headlines

NECTA Examination Results: Standard Seven pass rate rises to 85.22 percent

Standard Seven results reveal uneven performance across subjects

Where the $2.8 billion investment is flowing

Students in ‘ghettos’: Who is responsible for their safety?

NECTA Examination Results: Standard Seven pass rate rises to 85.22 percent

Prof Geoffrey Mmari: Integrity when it mattered most

What will newsrooms look like in 2030?

Rain leaves Mbeya residents homeless as floods sweep away 125 houses

Mkenda: Tanzanians’ innovations must undergo scientific verification

Lissu’s brother to be buried in Singida on November 10

Tanzania to review spending plans following MPs’ advice

Yanga, Simba, Azam get CAF approval to play group-stage matches at Uhuru Stadium

213,024 voters eligible for Wednesday’s Chamwino, 11 wards by-elections

NECTA Examination Results: Standard Seven pass rate rises to 85.22 percent

Standard Seven results reveal uneven performance across subjects

Where the $2.8 billion investment is flowing

Students in ‘ghettos’: Who is responsible for their safety?