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Ian Explains: How NATO got its groove back | GZERO World

Ian Explains: how NATO got its groove back

It’s been 365 days since Russia began its brutal war in Ukraine.

On the anniversary of the invasion, the world looks a lot different than it did a year ago. GZERO World traveled to the Munich Security Conference to understand just how much it's changed amid Europe's biggest land war since World War II. Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's best efforts, one of the biggest knock-on effects is NATO's increased strength and renewed purpose in the face of Russian aggression, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO

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"Peace" under authoritarian occupation isn't peaceful | Estonia's Kaja Kallas | GZERO World

"Peace" under authoritarian occupation isn't peaceful: Estonia's Kaja Kallas

Everyone knows that war is bad and peace is good, but what about the difference between peace and "peace"? Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas sat down with Ian Bremmer at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the war in Ukraine and how her perspective has changed since the Russian invasion began one year ago. Europe is a small region, says Kallas, and maintaining unity in the face of Russian aggression could come down to acknowledging European countries' lived experiences and not-so-distant history.

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Mitt Romney On The Threat Russia Poses To The World | GZERO World

Mitt Romney on the threat Russia poses to the world

It was nearly 11 years ago that then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney sat on stage with then-president Barack Obama and was ridiculed for identifying Russia as America’s chief geopolitical foe. Looking back today, the Utah Senator stands by what he said then. And he looks a heck of a lot smarter on the subject today than he may have in 2012. “They were a geopolitical adversary. No question about it. Every initiative that we had at the UN, they would block.”

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Cuban Missile Crisis turns 60 | GZERO Media

Cuban Missile Crisis turns 60

Sixty years ago, the world got as close it's ever been to nuclear war.

For 13 days, the US and the USSR played a dangerous cat-and-mouse game over Soviet nuclear missiles parked in Cuba. The Cold War nearly got hot.

In the end, a shared sense of humanity allowed a diplomatic solution. The world breathed a sigh of relief.

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Annie Gugliotta

Another nuclear showdown?

Sixty years ago on Friday, Maj. Richard Heyser took hundreds of photos of suspicious installations in the Cuban countryside from a US spy plane. Close inspection of the photos back in Washington revealed that the Soviet government, then led by Nikita Khrushchev, had secretly installed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads over 90 miles of ocean to hit targets across much of the United States. You can hear audio recordings of the initial White House discussion of this threat here.

Over the following days, the White House and Kremlin found themselves looking for ways to avoid nuclear war. The crisis was resolved when a deal was reached that pulled the Soviet missiles from Cuba and later withdrew US missiles from Turkey.

Today, a Kremlin leader has created a new crisis. A Russian invasion has produced a military stalemate in the south and east of Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has warned that nuclear weapons remain an option for Russia if he believes his country’s national security is threatened. Other Russian officials and allies have issued more explicit threats. President Joe Biden has invoked “the prospect of Armageddon” and spoken about lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis that might help avert catastrophe today.

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Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. So is his legacy.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the final general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

He was an extraordinary and truly world-changing leader. Ultimately, and tragically, he was a failed one as well.

Arguably, Gorbachev was the leader that made the greatest impact on my professional life. My first trip outside of the United States was to the Soviet Union back in 1986. Gorbachev had just risen to power the year before, and at the time it wasn't at all clear that he was going to be a great reformer.

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Mikhail Gorbachev Outlived His Legacy | Quick Take | GZERO Media

Mikhail Gorbachev outlived his legacy

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take:

Mikhail Gorbachev, the final general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has died at 91. He's an extraordinary and truly world changing leader, ultimately, and tragically a failed one as well. Arguably, Gorbachev was the leader that made the greatest impact on my professional life. My first trip outside the United States was to the former Soviet Union back in 1986. Gorbachev had just gotten into power the year before, and actually it wasn't at all clear when I went there that he was going to be this great reformer. In his early days, he was focused on anti-alcohol campaign, anti-corruption campaign, sort of trying to improve Soviet society, but also working to concentrate, more power in the hands of the politburo, where there was a serious power struggle going on. In fact, the early days you could argue that Gorbachev and Xi Jinping actually had a lot in common, but that's really where the comparisons end.

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Putin Miscalculated on Ukraine | Misled By Post-Cold War Worldview, Says Ivan Krastev | GZERO World

Putin miscalculated on Ukraine, misled by post-Cold War worldview, says Ivan Krastev

For political scientist Ivan Krastev, Vladimir Putin miscalculated in Ukraine — but in a much deeper way than how the invasion is playing out so far.

Why? Krastev offers three explanations in an interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

First, Putin never accepted that the Soviet Union collapsed because communism did.

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