MESOP ANALYSIS – RESSOURCE PERSONS ON PUTIN / NATO CONFLICT

“President Putin wants to teach America a lesson, but he also speaks to a Europe flooded by a million refugees and haunted by the specters of radical Islam and demographic anxiety. Yesterday the European Union hoped to transform its neighbors; today it sees itself as a hostage. Mr. Putin wants to persuade Europe that, as brutal a dictator as Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya was, he was willing and able to protect the borders of Europe, something the new democracies could not do,” writes Ivan Krastev in the New York Times.

“The future of the region, and American credibility among the states of the Middle East, are both at stake. In these rapidly unfolding circumstances the US has only one real option if it is to protect its wider stakes in the region: to convey to Moscow the demand that it cease and desist from military actions that directly affect American assets. Russia has every right to support Mr Assad, if it so wishes—but any repetition of what has just transpired should prompt US retaliation,” writes Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Financial Times.

“By being able to pose a credible threat to coalition air assets over large parts of Syria, Russia forces the US and its allies to consult with it on mission planning and deconfliction efforts. The multiple violations of Turkish airspace and aggressive radar-locking of Turkish F-16 interceptors by Russian aircraft over the weekend further show how determined Putin is to show his military muscle in the region,” writes Justin Bronk in Al Jazeera.