Silicon Curtain

Jonathan MS Pearce is a philosopher, author, columnist, and public speaker with an interest in writing about almost anything, from scepticism to science, politics, and morality, to the environment. Essentially because everything is philosophy. He is a former teacher and is now battling primary progressive multiple sclerosis. He can no longer play football with his twin boys, but he can still write...

Disinformation continues to be a threat to Ukrainian sovereignty and is also targeted at Western democracies and allies of Ukraine. Around the world aggressive information warfare threatens information security and social stability, especially in states which Russia seeks to destabilise or coerce into supporting it. As we saw in the 2016 US elections, it can potentially threaten results of voting,...

In Collisions, Michael Kimmage, traces the origins of the Russia-Ukraine war. He unpicks the development of Ukraine and Russia's fractious relationship back to the end of the Cold War, through the central events that led to Vladimir Putin seizing Crimea in 2014 and, eight years later, initiating the most intensive and widescale military confrontation of the post-WWII era. This conflict ushers...

Strikes on Russian oil refineries have a significant impact on Russia’s ability to conduct warfare. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Commander of U.S. Forces Europe in 2014-17, stated this during the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum. “Of course, attacks on oil refineries have a significant impact. Russia is less able to pay for this war, and it also deprives it of the necessary fuel to continue hosti...

Marci Shore asks the vital question: What is worth dying for? While the world watched the uprising on the Maidan as an episode in geopolitics, those in Ukraine during the extraordinary winter of 2013–14 lived the revolution as an existential transformation: the blurring of night and day, the loss of a sense of time, the sudden disappearance of fear, the imperative to make choices. The Maidan was a...

Washington’s likely failure in Ukraine shows the US needs a new national security strategy. Andrew A. Michta is senior fellow and director of the Scowcroft Strategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council of the United States. The views expressed here are his own: "The United States Senate’s failure to pass an aid package for Ukraine last month will likely be remembered as the first domino to fall...

Edition No38 | 27-03-2024 Ukrainian drones “have knocked out 600,000 to 900,00 barrels” of Russia’s daily oil-refining capacity. Industry experts estimate that Ukraine’s campaign of long-range drone strikes on Russia’s energy industry has already succeeded in knocking out between 600,000 and 900,000 barrels of Russia’s daily oil-refining capacity, Bloomberg reports. Ukraine launched a bombing camp...

The UK government is providing a range of economic, humanitarian, and defensive military assistance to Ukraine – often leading the way with supply of new capabilities and categories of munition, to encourage allies to scale up their commitments. Britain seems to be less intimidated by Russia’s so-called ‘red lines’, which time have proved to be illusory – just the bluff and bluster of a bully. Ove...

Dr Yuri Felshtinsky is a prominent author, historian, and journalist, and expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union. He has appeared in hundreds of print, TV, and radio interviews worldwide, and is widely known as co-author of the book “Blowing Up Russia” with Alexander Litvinenko, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the FSB who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006. His latest bo...

As the UK Defence Attache to the Russian Federation from 2019 to 2022, John Foreman advised senior UK officials and ministers on Russian military and security affairs and represented the UK Chief of Defence Staff to the Russian General Staff. He had a front-row seat for the tense meetings and negotiations that immediately preceded Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022. ----------...

Prof. Olga Onuch has written what has been described as the definitive portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky, an extraordinary book called “The Zelensky Effect”. In this book, she explains the paradox of Zelensky as a leader and but also entertainer, businessman and risk-taker. She explores Ukraine’s national history to show how its now-iconic president reflects the hopes and frustrations of the country’...

Instead of what he thought would be a ‘short victorious war’, Putin has mired Russia in a protracted and costly struggle that may not only end Putin’s tenure in the Kremlin, but also threaten the integrity of the Russian Federation itself. The stakes could not be higher, and history shows that change in Russia moves like tectonic plates – nothing for decades, and then pent up forces are released i...

After the Cold War, globalization accelerated at breakneck speed. Manufacturing, transport, and consumption defied national borders, companies made more money, and consumers had access to an ever-increasing range of goods. But in recent years, a profound shift has begun to take place. Business executives and politicians alike are realising that globalization is no longer working. Supply chains are...

Geopolitical competition in the Black Sea is redefining regional order and shaping relations between states in the wider region. It has also challenged the idea of regional order based on regional ownership and laid bare how the security of different regions is interlinked. The Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean have increasingly merged into one geopolitical space, where regional and great power...

About Dietmar Pichler - Analyst and Advocate for Disinformation Resilience Passionate about building resilience against disinformation and propaganda - dedicated to protecting our democracy from autocratic regimes and extremist groups. Russian propaganda is the "elephant in the room" that we need to address when discussing Media Literacy. ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/DietmarPich...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

Michał Rachoń is a Polish TV presenter, who worked for many years on the public broadcaster TVP. In the past he was an activist for PiS, the Law and Justice party that led Poland's previous government. His coverage of the Ukraine war has been described as courageous, informative, and refreshing, and he has been a guest on Joseph Lindsley’s channel, who will be familiar to people watching Silic...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

This is a recording of the Marathon event in support of Ukraine that was jointly run in Berlin on 15th March 2024 by Silicon Curtain and the European Resilience Initiative Center: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroResilience https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconCurtain ---------- The online TV marathon was hosted to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 10 years of t...

In February 2022, Russian missiles rained on Ukrainian cities, and tanks rolled towards Kyiv to end Ukrainian independent statehood. President Zelensky declined a Western evacuation offer and Ukrainians rallied to defend their country. What are the roots of this war, which has upended the international legal order and brought back the spectre of nuclear escalation? How did these supposedly “brothe...