NATO

Developments in Baltic Defense since Trump Took Office

The Baltic states have felt themselves to be in something of a defense crisis since the Russian annexation of Crimea, which revealed Russia’s revisionist intentions to the extent that even Western Europeans began to take them seriously. While all...

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The 2016 Coup Attempt in Montenegro: Is Russia’s Balkans Footprint Expanding?

On October 15, 2016, the day before Montenegro’s hotly contested legislative elections, Podgorica authorities thwarted an alleged coup attempt. Asserting that the conspirators aimed to prevent Montenegro’s imminent NATO accession, they blamed Moscow as the main instigator. Reflecting on...

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Bosnia on the Russian Chopping Block: The Potential for Violence and Steps to Prevent It

Russia is actively supporting indigenous political and paramilitary actors seeking to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Kremlin is cooperating with the Republika Srpska (RS) government of President Milorad Dodik to achieve this goal by violent means if necessary. ...

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The Black Sea Initiative: 2018 Research Agenda

The Black Sea region in recent years has been marked both by sharp shifts and by intractable dilemmas. The biggest shift is Russia, which has expanded its military role throughout the broader Black Sea region even as it stumbles...

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Russia’s Foray into the Balkans: Who Is Really to Blame?

“There are three hundred million of us,” people in Montenegro once boasted. “Together with the Russians,” they would hasten to add. The tiny state, tucked between the Adriatic Sea and the Dinaric Alps and whose population is a little...

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European Leaders Discuss the Future of the Baltic and Beyond at Riga

Since 2006, the Baltic states have hosted two major annual conferences on defense and security: the Annual Baltic Conference on Defense (ABCD) and its larger sibling, the Riga Conference. These flagship conferences present the cutting edge of Baltic thought...

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Baltic Prudence or Paranoia, Redux: What Does Zapad-2017 Mean for the Baltic States?

Russia’s Zapad-2017 exercise will take place from September 14 to 20 and may become the largest Russian military exercise since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Baltic states have been expressing concern and suggesting that the exercise poses...

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Turkey’s Black Sea Policy: Navigating between Russia and the West

The heart of distrust Ankara feels towards the West lies in an existential issue: Western tolerance, and at times support for, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist-Leninist, and more recently, Kurdish nationalist insurgency. The PKK is recognized as...

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Georgia after Montenegro’s NATO Accession

Montenegro’s recent accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sent an important political message to Russia’s post-Soviet neighbors: NATO’s door remains open to new members no matter the security environment. This signal will likely propel many post-Soviet countries...

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Fear, Honor, and Interest: Rethinking Deterrence in a 21st-Century Europe

Abstract The “America First” approach to foreign policy represents an opportunity to reassess relations with Russia. Efforts to deter Russian aggression have failed. Perhaps a new approach is needed. This article uses the lessons of the Peloponnesian War to...

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