CNN FAREED's Global Briefing February 21, 2024 : Greece makes history and more ...

 

Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good   Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Sign up here.   February 21, 2024

February 21, 2024

Greece Makes History.

Is Everyone on Board?

To Amnesty International Greece Campaigns Coordinator Despina Paraskeva-Veloudogianni, it “represents an important milestone in the fight against homophobia and transphobia.” To the global culture magazine Monocle, it “signals Greece’s ambitions to become an equal partner in a progressive Europe.”

Greece legalized same-sex marriage this month, becoming the first Orthodox Christian country to do so. But despite the history-making nature of the legislative vote, some have pointed to dissenting views and a difficult path to this point.

Last year, Pew polling revealed split opinions on same-sex marriage in Greece, with 48% supporting and 49% against it. Le Monde’s Greece correspondent, Marina Rafenberg, noted in December that after an activist sued Greece over its marriage laws in the European Court of Human Rights in 2009, “(i)t took four years before Greece was convicted of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Then, another two years later, in 2015, (then-Prime Minister) Alexis Tsipras’ left-wing government voted in the equivalent of (France’s civil-union law) in Greece. The law was passed by 195 votes out of 300, but in a country where the Orthodox Church is all-powerful and there is no separation of church and state, dissenting voices had already been heard. … The recent election of openly gay Stefanos Kasselakis, who recently married his partner in the United States, as leader of the main opposition party, Syriza (center-left), seems to have had an electroshock effect on Greek society.”

At the Associated Press, Peter Smith and Dasha Litvinova ask if other Orthodox countries will follow suit, noting the social conservatism of many Orthodox churches. They hear from Fordham University professor George E. Demacopoulos, co-director of the school’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, that the European Union’s Orthodox member countries will likely adopt civil unions eventually, facing varying degrees of church resistance.

The Houthis’ Asymmetric Success

A band of Shi’a militants that seized Yemen’s capital in 2014 and continue to fight a civil war across much of the country, the Houthis have—since October of last year—inconvenienced international shipping with attacks on cargo ships transiting the Red Sea, in a protest against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. A small player in global affairs, the Houthis have demonstrated a long reach with missiles and drones. This week, the crew of a Belize-flagged, British-registered cargo ship abandoned their vessel after it was hit by Houthi missiles. The US, which has sought to deter the Houthis with missile strikes in Yemen, also attacked an underwater Houthi vessel.

International shipping rates remain high as a result, as some cargo carriers avoid the Red Sea altogether, rerouting to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope instead and adding thousands of miles to their journeys.

What can be learned from and said about the big dent this small group is making in the international order? For one thing, Matthew Suarez and Brandon M. Patterson write for American Purpose that the Houthis are rewriting the rules of sea power. Large navies can no longer loiter and control a given area so easily, they write: “Confined to the oceans and seas, navies are vulnerable to missiles and threats from land. As technology continues to develop, those distances continue to lengthen. Presence for its own sake exposes naval vessels inside of the weapon engagement zone of modern threats, without necessarily exercising local control of the sea. Indeed, the Houthis have shown exactly how difficult it is to maintain command of the sea in the 21st century.”

At Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar writes that the Houthis have proven to be a valuable ally for Iran, which seeks to disrupt US sea dominance in the region, and that Washington has no easy, effective answer to the Houthis’ attacks, as reprisal strikes seem to bolster the group’s claims of fighting imperialism, politically. Tabaar’s conclusion: “Ultimately, the best way for the United States to try and stabilize the Red Sea is through swift diplomacy. If Washington can pressure Israel to cease bombing Palestinian civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza, it will weaken the immediate pretext for Houthi operations.”

Ukraine in Sudan?

On the battlefields of Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces suffered a loss this month when they withdrew from the frontline town of Avdiivka. As CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh writes, the town is only of “moderate strategic importance,” but Ukraine “is dealing with Russian surges on many fronts” and faces US indecision on military support.

Far away from Avdiivka, it seems Ukrainian troops may be fighting another Russian foe. Last fall, a CNN investigation found evidence that Ukrainian special forces were involved in drone strikes and raids in Sudan. That country is enmeshed in a complex civil confict that pits the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group (and successor to the brutal Janjaweed militias accused of committing atrocities in Darfur in the 2000s) under the control of Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Russia’s infamous Wagner paramilitary group has apparently supported Hemedti’s RSF, and CNN found evidence of Ukrainian special forces fighting on the other side, on the SAF’s behalf. Ukraine’s defense-intelligence agency would neither confirm nor deny it.

This month, The Economist wrote: “Ukraine may have several goals in Sudan. First, it appears to want to disrupt the flow of gold from facilities reportedly operated by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. … Second, Ukraine may have used Sudan as a transit stop to get weapons from other countries. … Last, targeting Russian forces anywhere in the world sends a message.”

The Notability of King Charles’ Disclosure

King Charles disquieted Britons this month by announcing a cancer diagnosis. In a guest opinion essay for The New York Times, historian Miranda Carter writes that through the ages, monarchs have rarely confirmed diseases afflicting themselves or their heirs. For instance, Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, “went to extreme lengths to hide the hemophilia of his son and heir, Aleksei, and refused to explain the presence of the notorious faith healer Rasputin, whose exploits became a metaphor for the Russian state’s corruption.”

In that way, Carter writes, Charles opted for notable transparency, even though he didn’t disclose the kind of cancer or anything more. Carter muses: “That said, it’s probably asking too much to expect full candor from any head of state about his or her health. American presidents are just as prone to keep their medical information to themselves. Franklin Roosevelt hid the effects of his polio; John Kennedy’s perma-tan distracted the world from his Addison’s disease and probable celiac disease. A U.S. president’s physical and mental condition has a tangible effect on both American politics and those of the rest of the world. There will continue to be intense speculation about this question for the septuagenarian and octogenarian candidates in the coming presidential election, but no one expects either of them to tell the full truth.”