The UN’s latest bid to negotiate a political transition in Syria is unlikely to yield results. Behind its mediators’ failures lie a wider breakdown of great-power politics, says expert Richard Gowan.

The focus of the EU and U.S. response should go beyond the passenger jet downing and address broader concerns about Russia’s policies toward Ukraine, says CFR’s Stephen Sestanovich.

U.S.-Germany relations have plunged to new lows, but the alliance is far greater than the recent controversy over espionage, says expert Karen Donfried.

The vote by some Crimean citizens to join Russia violates Ukrainian and international law and could come back to haunt Moscow, its primary backer, says CFR’s John Bellinger.

A brutal crackdown continues, the opposition resists a political solution, and a divided international community offers no new alternatives, says expert Peter Harling.