“Participants provide quick overviews of how the US’s current conflict with Iran affects energy supplies, relations in the Middle East, and economic stability.”
Part of “International Organizations and You” flash talks at UW Madison Law School, sponsored by the Global Legal Studies Center. This talk organized by Tana Johnson (Public Affairs).
Source: WSJ, 14 April 2026. Front month now is for June.
Thursday, April 16, at 4:30-6:00 pm
346 Birge Hall (on Bascom Hill).
This event will feature:
- Steven Brooke (Political Science)
- Menzie Chinn (La Follette School of Public Affairs and Dept of Economics)
- Corbett Grainger (Applied & Agricultural Economics),
- Greg Nemet (La Follette School of Public Affairs)
Off topic – The election in Hungary has highlighted, among other things, a loss of influence for Russia. Turns out, Hungary isn’t the only country where political leadership is turning toward Europe at Russia’s expense:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/putin-warns-armenia-cant-both-194227608.html
Armenia, which is highly dependent on Russia’s economy, is working on joining the EU. It’s not hard to imagine why – Russia’s economy has been under stress since it restarted its war on Ukraine. Russia is now threatening to toss Armenia out of it economic bloc if Armenia joins the EU.
The U.S. recently brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan – the war-criminal-in-chief’s one real diplomatic accomplishment. Russia had for years been trying to keep a lid on this conflict, but often in ways that Armenians thought favored Azerbaijan, which makes the U.S. deal all the more appealing to Armenians; improved relations, rather than one-sided settlements.
Armenia is also strengthening trade ties with Turkey, a member of NATO.
Ukraine, Armenia and Hungary have all decided that close ties with Russia, to the exclusion of ties with the EU, aren’t desirable. Russia’s war on Ukraine is in part a warning to other countries against turning toward the west, but doesn’t appear to be working. Rather, the war seems to have backfired by making Russia a poor economic partner.
It’s worth noting that Hungarians dumped Orban largely because of corruption, the same reason that Ukrainians dumped Russia’s puppet regime there. I don’t know whether corruption plays a part in Armenia’s westward drift. Corruption is part of the package Russia offers its puppets, and it stokes resentment.
Putin often gets credit for being a keen strategist, for using his vaunted background in Russia’s intelligence service to win the upper hand. That view certainly looks a little shakey these days.
Also off topic – The felon-in-chief is lobbying the two oldest Supreme Court justices to retire:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5831975-trump-prepared-name-supreme-justice/
Kalshi showed the odds of majority control of the Senate shifting from Republican to dead even around March and now 53% in favor of Democrats.
I’m pretty sure the felon is eager to replace Thomas and Alito now because this is his last chance.
US DOE EIA Wweekly Petroleum Balance Sheet week ended April 10 2026, 5 th week of closed Hormuz.
US averaged daily net crude imports 66,000 barrels per day. Cumulative average since 1 Jan 2,285,000 per day. Anecdote?
4,100,000 crude oil draw from strategic petroleum reserve. Anecdote.
Check next Week