Burundi looks like it is entering a vortex of renewed violence. It's in a troubled region, we have been here before—and the president's determination to pursue an unconstitutional third term is blocking any democratic alternative.
The ceasefire agreement in Minsk over Ukraine was better than no outcome at all. But only a little better.
The latest violence in eastern Ukraine would lead most observers to think an end to the military and political attrition is not in sight. They would be right.
The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, burst the 25th-anniversary balloon of the symbolic end of the cold war by warning of a new one, fed by NATO's eastward expansion. An economically weak USSR lost the last one; a still weaker Russia will lose this one too.
Arming Syrian rebel forces could tip the balance and break the deadlock - at the negotiating table.
