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Stefan Wolff

Stefan Wolff

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US and Russia squabble over Arctic security as melting ice opens up shipping routes

US and Russia squabble over Arctic security as melting ice opens up shipping routes

Melting ice in the Arctic is opening up shipping routes and making the region a valuable strategic asset.

04.04.2025 20

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Trump’s phone call with Putin fails to deliver ceasefire – here’s what could happen next

The Russian president set harsh conditions on Ukraine and offered little in return.

19.03.2025 5

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

US and Ukraine sign 30-day ceasefire proposal – now the ball is in Putin’s court

Vladimir Putin will now have to weigh up how to maintain a reset with the US while also pressing for more military success on the battlefield.

12.03.2025 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Europe-Nato ‘coalition of the willing’ scrambles for collective response to hostility from Trump and threat from Putin

US foreign policy is forcing a security rethink, particularly in Europe.

06.03.2025 8

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Raised voices and angry scenes at the White House as Trump clashes with Zelensky over the ‘minerals deal’

There’s nothing in the deal about the US guaranteeing Ukraine’s future security.

28.02.2025 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Zelensky flies to Washington but his dream of a ‘just peace’ deal is unlikely to come true as things stand

There’s nothing in the deal about the US guaranteeing Ukraine’s future security.

28.02.2025 3

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine war: Trump is not trying to appease Putin – he has a vision of a new US-China -Russia order

Trump’s seeming embrace of Vladimir Putin has some sinister echoes of the past.

24.02.2025 30

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Europe left scrambling in face of wavering US security guarantees

European leaders are stunned at the radical change of direction signalled by Donald Trump and his team.

17.02.2025 9

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

While the world is distracted by Trump, here’s how Putin and Musk are weakening European democracies

Russia’s election disruption and interference also taps into public dissatisfaction with democracy.

10.02.2025 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine: prospects for peace are slim unless Europe grips the reality of Trump’s world

Europe is finally realising it needs to take more responsibility for its own defence. But this realisation has come very late in the day.

05.02.2025 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Trump’s vision of a peace deal for Ukraine is limited to a ceasefire – and it’s not even clear if Kyiv or Moscow are going to play ball

Both sides have good reasons for wanting to avoid a deal which freezes the frontlines where they are.

27.01.2025 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Trump signals he will start pushing for a new world order in first 100 days

Trump’s foreign policy plans are likely to shake up current world alliances.

17.01.2025 3

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Stefan Wolff

Trump’s Greenland bid is really about control of the Arctic and the coming battle with China

Trump’s bid to buy Greenland is partly based on security concerns about Chinese and Russian access to the Arctic.

09.01.2025 4

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine closure of Gazprom pipeline to Europe hurts Russia’s war effort but leaves Transnistrians in the cold

Kyiv has finally turned off Russia’s gas supply to Europe, ending a source of income that helped pay for Moscow’s war against Ukraine. The...

03.01.2025 4

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

The world’s most bizarre secret weapons: how pigeons, cats, whales and even robotic catfish have acted as spies through the ages

The death of a spy is rarely newsworthy, due to the secrecy surrounding it. But when a white beluga whale suspected of spying for Moscow was found...

27.12.2024 6

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine war: as 2025 approaches, Kyiv is left with few good options and allies in a Trump 2.0 world

As the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held his carefully stage-managed annual phone-in and press conference to answer questions from...

19.12.2024 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Trump wants China’s help in making peace in Ukraine. He’s unlikely to get it

US president-elect Donald Trump has invited China’s president Xi Jinping to his inauguration on January 20 in a surprise move which appears to be...

13.12.2024 4

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

What the fall of Assad says about Putin’s ambitions for Russia’s great-power status

The lightning-fast collapse of the Assad regime in Syria has sent shock waves across the Middle East. The disposal of the dictator whose family had...

12.12.2024 20

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Russia and Ukraine face off at European security conference as all sides wait for Trump presidency

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) marks the 50th anniversary of its foundation next year. Last week, after months of...

11.12.2024 4

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine war: polls show most Ukrainians now support a negotiated peace as Russian advances continue

The war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. Kyiv has been given permission to use western-supplied Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles against...

25.11.2024 4

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine war: polls show most Ukrainians would support a negotiated peace as Russian advances continue

The war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. Kyiv has been given permission to use western-supplied Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles against...

25.11.2024 4

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine: after 1,000 days of war, Europe must prepare for a Trump-brokered peace deal by asserting its own interests

Since Donald Trump was reelected on November 5, speculation about what his presidency will mean for the war in Ukraine, which has now entered its...

18.11.2024 2

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Stefan Wolff

Trump, Xi and Putin: a dysfunctional love triangle with stakes of global significance

Reports of a phone call between the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin (although quickly denied by the...

11.11.2024 3

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

What Trump’s victory means for Ukraine, the Middle East, China and the rest of the world

Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, combined with a Republican-led US Senate and House of Representatives was widely feared...

06.11.2024 20

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Maia Sandu’s victory in second round of Moldovan election show’s limits to Moscow’s meddling

Following a campaign marred by widespread and credible allegations of massive interference by Russia and pro-Russian proxies, Moldova’s incumbent...

04.11.2024 3

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Russia’s Brics summit shows determination for a new world order – but internal rifts will buy the west some time

The recent Brics summit in the Russian city of Kazan was less notable for what happened at the meeting than for what happened before, on the...

25.10.2024 5

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Moldova votes on whether to join EU as Russia intensifies vast disinformation campaign

Moldova is emerging as a major strategic battleground in a fierce competition between Russia and the west. A Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign...

15.10.2024 2

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine faces worsening odds on the battlefield and a struggle on the diplomatic front after Biden postpones summit

In May 2023, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, embarked on a whistle-stop tour of European capitals to shore up support from his western...

14.10.2024 2

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine war: Zelensky’s pleas for help are getting drowned out in the clamour from the Middle East

While Russia continues its nuclear sabre rattling, with renewed threats to use its arsenal if attacked, fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine and...

26.09.2024 3

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

How the west is foiling Russia’s attempts to use the Arctic in the Ukraine war

Things are not exactly going to plan for Moscow in the Arctic – an area that is a strategic military region for Russia and has significant economic...

12.09.2024 2

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Pro-Putin movement expands across the former Soviet bloc – here’s why

As Russia keeps pounding Ukrainian cities with airstrikes and advances along the frontline in Donbas, regional elections in two states in eastern...

04.09.2024 2

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine war: away from the battlefield the diplomatic wrangling hots up with Modi visit to Kyiv

Ukraine’s three-week incursion has been countered recently by an intensifying Russian drone campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure. Russian...

27.08.2024 10

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

Ukraine’s Kursk incursion: how the invasion of Russia could change the political focus of the conflict

The Ukrainian operation in Russia’s Kursk region began in late July with several days of airstrikes before Kyiv’s ground forces quickly advanced...

15.08.2024 8

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff

One-third of Ukrainians would give up land for peace – but it’s not as simple as that

According to a recent opinion poll taken by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, almost one third of Ukrainians are now prepared to make...

31.07.2024 1

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff