World Affairs Council
of Western Michigan

Series: CEPS Commentary

Yesterday, Sunday October 30th, the EU and Canada finally signed the long-awaited Comprehensive and Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which had been in limbo for almost two weeks because the Belgian region of Wallonia refused to give its conse...

The military plan A is working well, for now. But if it encounters problems, the myriad of actors involved could start to pull in different directions, to the detriment of Mosul’s future.

The battle of Mosul is Iraq’s most complicated military campaign against ISIS to d...

Pictured (from left): U.S. Congressman Bill Huizenga, World Affairs Council Board President Tom Palumbo, Canadian Ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton, and Mayor of Grand Rapids Rosalynn Bliss

The ground-swell against globalisation has tripped up the Canadian-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium objects, leaving the EU 'not capable' of signing an agreement. If Europe can't agree a trade de...

1. When traveling to areas where you know the water supply is suspect, be sure to use bottled water even for brushing your teeth and cleaning your toothbrush.

2. Always carry Imodium when you travel.

Their Goals are Entirely Different

There won’t be a U.S.-Russia breakthrough to resolve the Syria crisis. The Obama administration perceives that in Syria counterterrorism is its top priority. The Americans perceive that the brutal policies of the Assad government drive...

The U.S. must act soon, or see its post-WWII work come apart.

BEIRUT—For at least a year before the summer of 2016, civilians and fighters in rebel-held East Aleppo prepared for a siege they believed was both avoidable and inevitable. Correctly, it turns out, they calcu...

MOSCOW — Soon after he was first appointed prime minister back in 1999, Vladimir Putin joked to an audience of top intelligence officers that a group of undercover spies, dispatched to infiltrate the government, was “successfully fulfilling its task.”

It turns out Putin...

Vladislav Inozemtsev, “Russia's Economic Modernization: The Causes of a Failure”, Russie.Nei.Visions, No. 96, September 2016.

Summary

In this short study of attempts that have been made in recent years to modernise the Russian economy, the author explains why they have a...