The Russia-Ukraine war has taken a dangerous turn after North Korea decided to deploy troops alongside Russian forces to fight against Ukraine. Some argue that North Korean assistance to Russia will lead to North Korea’s development of more lethal missiles and nuclear capabilities in the future.
Keeping The Russian War Machine Alive: Analysing Putin’s New War Economy
Politicians across the West vowed, amidst a wave of sanctions for Russian state officials, companies and oligarchs, that Moscow’s economy would be stifled. And yet, Russia’s GDP growth has surpassed both the EU and the US for the second consecutive year. A conflict which has enormous geopolitical consequences, a burden of incalculable human, industrial, agricultural and energy losses for some, is seemingly also providing an economic boom that is injecting optimism and richness across Russia, particularly among Russia's “rustbelt”.
The Wagner Group in Africa: Implications of Migration Patterns and Crises in the Region and Beyond
This article explores how the Wagner Group’s (WG) expanding footprint in Africa can exacerbate the migration crisis in Europe. It argues that the group can provoke irregular migration by supporting violence and political oppression in Africa and cooperating with hybrid warfare tools against EU borders. It also reflects on the challenges for the EU to address such threats and comments on what could be done by the Union to contain the WG in Africa.
The Meltdown: Nuclear Relations in the Arctic
This article assesses the impact of multipolarity on nuclear relations in the Arctic. Due to climate change, geopolitical tension, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear relations in the Arctic are unstable and present serious security risks that cannot be contended with through the use of classic deterrence theory. Melting polar ice means growing competition for Arctic territory and resources amongst North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members, the Russian Federation, and China. This is occurring alongside the threat of nuclear warfare, which is considered by all actors to be a matter of deterrence despite it being beyond the bipolar rational choice modelling of deterrence theory.