What Caught My Eye (no. 37)
Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week
Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.
Somini Sengupta, Harry Stevens, and Mira Rojanasakul, “10 Years After a Breakthrough Climate Pact, Here’s Where We Are,” The New York Times, November 7, 2025. Marking the tenth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the New York Times assesses the mixed progress in the global fight against climate change. Sengupta, the Times’ international climate reporter, uses a series of graphics to compare climate projections and goals to where the world is today.
Carsten Søndergaard, “Russian Negotiating Style: When Does the West Learn?” European Policy Centre (EPC), November 3, 2025. The former Danish Ambassador to Russia, Germany, and NATO, argues that Moscow treats diplomacy as an extension of conflict, not a path to compromise. He identifies seven enduring traits of Russian statecraft: great-power entitlement, ambiguous borders, politicized identity, fear-based respect, status obsession, zero-sum logic, and deception. He shows how each reinforces an adversarial approach to negotiation. The paper concludes that Western policy must be grounded in realism, deterrence, and unity, rejecting illusions of goodwill or equal partnership with the Kremlin.
Dasha Burns, Felicia Schwartz, Nahal Toosi, and Paul McLeary, “Trump has promised peace for Gaza. Private documents paint a grim picture,” POLITICO, November 11, 2025. POLITICO obtained internal US government documents revealing deep uncertainty within the Trump administration about the viability of its Gaza peace plan, despite President Trump’s public assurances of “lasting peace.” The materials, 67 slides shown at a US-organized symposium in Israel last month, detail logistical and political hurdles to implementing the October 2025 cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Trump risks political backlash if the US becomes entangled in another open-ended Middle East mission inconsistent with his “America First” agenda.
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, “Biden Discussed Potential Israeli War Crimes In Gaza. He Kicked The Can To Trump,” HuffPost, November 7, 2025. Ahmed, the senior diplomatic correspondent at the HuffPost, details how in late 2024, President Biden and senior aides reviewed sensitive U.S. intelligence suggesting Israeli officials themselves questioned the legality of aspects of the Gaza war. Options considered included curbing U.S. intelligence-sharing with Israel, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken privately raised whether Israeli actions amounted to “ethnic cleansing,” according to former officials. The article frames Biden’s approach as a missed chance to impose consequences and mitigate civilian harm, with long-term implications for US credibility and the rule of law.
Daniel Sneider, “South Korea Redefines Alliance Burden Sharing After Trump’s Asia Visit,” Korea Economic Institute, November 11, 2025. Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University, writes that the Trump Administration’s policy of “burden sharing” is pushing Seoul toward greater strategic autonomy and a future without US support. Under Washington’s “alliance modernization” agenda, South Korea is boosting defense spending, taking on more responsibility under wartime operational control, and pursuing nuclear fuel capabilities tied to a proposed US–Korea submarine deal. Yet Seoul insists it will not be drawn into an anti-China bloc, reflecting both tighter military integration and growing hedging over America’s reliability.
Eva Hartog, “Putin’s archrival warns Europe: Brace for Cold War II whatever happens in Ukraine,” POLITICO, November 7, 2025. Exiled Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky told POLITICO that Europe should prepare for at least a decade-long “Cold War II” with Russia, regardless of how the Ukraine war ends. He argued that only a credible Western military deterrent can prevent future Russian aggression, since sanctions and Ukraine’s drone strikes have failed to seriously damage Moscow’s war machine. Recently charged by the Kremlin with leading a “terrorist organization,” Khodorkovsky said the move shows Putin’s fear of a legitimate democratic opposition abroad.
Jack Watling, “Ukraine’s Hardest Winter: With the Donbas in Peril, Europe Must Pressure Russia Now,” Foreign Affairs, November 11, 2025. Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, warns that Ukraine faces its most perilous phase yet as Russian forces close in on the Donbas and intensify assaults across the front. He argues that Western indecision and declining U.S. support have emboldened Moscow, which aims to exhaust Ukraine and force a political collapse rather than negotiate in good faith. To shift the balance, Watling calls for Europe to move beyond symbolic measures by targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” oil exports, expanding weapons production, and training Ukrainian troops inside the country in order to apply real economic and military pressure. Without such action, he cautions, Russia could coerce Ukraine into submission by 2026.
Finally, in case you missed it here are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.
This week’s World Review focused on the race to electrify energy production and growing criticism among “America First” supporters of President Trump’s overseas focus rather than problems at home.
Happy reading, watching, and listening!
The EPC piece on Russian negotiating tactics is particuarly insightful. The seven traits Søndergaard identifies really do capture how Moscow uses diplomacy as a weapon rather than a bridge. What stands out is the zero-sum logic, it explains why every Western attempt at engagement ends up looking naive in retrospect. Solid curration this week.