One of the best additions to the War on the Rocks membership is the Ukraine Compass. Every week, Nicole Wiley and other members of our team read across Ukrainian media and select some of the most interesting commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum. We translate, summarize, and contextualize those pieces for members so they can follow the debates taking place inside Ukraine itself. The Ukraine Compass gives members a much fuller picture of the country. This week’s edition includes Valerii Zaluzhnyi on the next five years of Ukrainian independence, arguments about Russia’s possible collapse, criticism of Zelensky’s relationship with the press, debates over American diplomacy and European strategy, education during sustained bombardment, economic reconstruction, and the role of culture in Ukrainian national resilience. If you follow Ukraine closely, the Ukraine Compass is a strong reason to become a War on the Rocks member: https://lnkd.in/dP3Fqbvv
So the premium intelligence product is: read Ukrainian media, pick the interesting bits, translate them, summarize them, and sell Americans the curated bundle. That can be useful, but it is also a very expensive RSS reader unless the selection layer is auditable. Which outlets are systematically included, which political tendencies are weighted, what gets excluded, and how often does War on the Rocks discover that its own curation produced the “fuller picture” it expected to see?