Editorial

The experience of the past three months in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine crisis, in particular, has had the effect of signaling a decisive turning point that will alter strategic calculations across the globe. With Putin putatively the richest man in the world, some pressure might be put on him by the West freezing the many billions of dollars secreted away by his close supporters and confidants in such tax havens as the British Virgin Islands. To date, however, the West and the British Government, in particular, have seemingly been reluctant to do so. There is the question of the future of Afghanistan, once the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops have finally departed. Skeptics have suggested that the past 12 year have achieved very little and that the country will likely revert to the status quo ante or worse. Afghan poppy heroin production, for example, has already reached record levels. Iraq would appear to be reverting to past practices as both sides of the sectarian divide measure up against one another.