A nation must think before it acts.
Russia
Weakened America Reaps What it Sows
Last Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 aircraft conducted a simulated attack against a U.S. destroyer, the Donald Cook, operating in the Baltic Sea. The action violated a 1973 treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union aimed at preventing...
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Why Russia Sanctions?
The Obama administration’s current Russia policy needs a stronger dose of realpolitik. In particular Washington and its G-7 partners should re-evaluate the impact of economic sanctions, imposed on Russia in the wake of its 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Plainly,...
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Resetting the Reset
In recent weeks, I have had the honor to attend different daylong seminars convened to ponder Russia’s future under Vladimir Putin and the future of U.S.-Russia relations: a “Russia Experts Meeting” hosted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York,...
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Donald Trump Folds the Nuclear Umbrella: Is American Extended Deterrence Passé?
It might be said that among foreign policy and national security watchers, Donald Trump is a gift that keeps giving....
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China’s Military Reorganization – and America’s Window of Opportunity
In September 2015, as part of the festivities marking the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would cut 300,000 troops. ...
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How, Why, and When Russia Will Deploy Little Green Men – and Why the US Cannot
The focus of applied methods of conflict has altered in the direction of the broad use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian, and other nonmilitary measures – applied in coordination with the protest potential of the population. All this is...
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Russia’s Role in the North Korea Conundrum: Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in Vladivostok, Russia in 2002. (Photo ITAR-TASS / Vladimir Rodionov) North Korea’s nuclear test on Jan. 6, 2016 and long-range missile launch on Feb. 7 have...
Read more »Turkey, Russia, and NATO Enter the Danger Zone
On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter jet downed a Russian SU-24M ground bomber near the Turkish-Syrian border after it violated Turkish airspace over the southern tip of Turkey’s most southern province of Hatay. The clash resulted in the...
Read more »The Race for Drones
Over the last two decades, the United States has been the world’s pre-eminent user and supplier of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In 2013, the United States was estimated to have approximately 7,500 drones in operation, ranging from relatively small...
Read more »The Revenge of Great Power Politics
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A week makes. A week ago Tom Ricks of the New American Foundation wrote about the non-military nature of today’s news, and then Russia conducts an invasion of the Crimea. This isn’t to be critical of Tom at all (full disclosure:...
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