Section: The National Interest (USA)
What Russia Expects from the Trump Administration
Andranik Migranyan Politics, Eurasia A new Congress of Vienna could strengthen U.S. leadership by sharing responsibility for global order. If Trump’s victory is truly the beginning of a new paradigm in domestic and particularly in foreign policy, and a transition from globalism to nationalism, we can expect major changes in U.S. foreign...
The Russian Military’s Super Weapon of Choice: The ‘Big Guns’
Robert Beckhusen Security, And why Ukraine should worry. One of the most characteristically Russian methods of warfighting is the heavy use of artillery. In Syria, Russian artillery gave a boost to a Syrian army badly depleted by years of heavy fighting. In eastern Ukraine, combined Russian-separatist forces continue to exchange artillery fire...
Why Hawkish Critiques of Obama Fall Flat
Emma M. Ashford Security, Americas We may well miss him when he’s gone. Poor President Obama. The forty-fourth president may have left office with high approval ratings, but his foreign-policy choices are still being disparaged by commentators from all sides of the political spectrum. Indeed, it’s hard to find a positive article...
The Simple Reason Russia and America Keep Inching towards Crisis
Ted Galen Carpenter Security, When Washington and Moscow don’t see eye to eye, disaster can ensue. Tensions between the United States and Russia rose rapidly during the final months of the Obama administration. Symbolizing that trend is the new deployment of three thousand U.S. troops along with tanks and other military hardware in eastern...
Are Russia’s Lethal S-400 SAMs Equipped with the Latest Long-Range Missiles?
Guy Plopsky Security, Perhaps it is premature to designate the airspace with a 400km radius of a S-400 system a no-fly zone. When Moscow deployed one of its advanced S-400 Surface-to-Air (SAM) system to Syria following the shoot down of a Russian Su-24 strike aircraft by a Turkish F-16 in late November 2015, both Russian and Western media sources...
The Scary Reasons NATO (and the World) Should Fear Russia’s Nuclear Weapons
Malcolm Davis Security, Europe Moscow’s nukes are getting a big upgrade…and more. Russia faces real challenges in sustaining its military modernization efforts, given low oil prices, Western sanctions and the cost of operations in Ukraine and Syria. Despite that, Moscow looks set to continue the program. At its heart is nuclear...
America Must Rethink Its Assumptions about Russia
Nikolas K. Gvosdev Politics, Eurasia From energy and politics to Syria and Ukraine. I rarely find myself nodding in full agreement with Masha Gessen’s writings, but her critique of the deficiencies of the U.S. analytic community in terms of the inquiries into Moscow’s efforts to sway the 2016 American elections is spot on. She ends...
Exposed: The Reason the U.S. Air Force Needs to Upgrade the F-15 Fast (Think Russia)
Kris Osborn Security, Electronic warfare is a strength for Moscow–and has Washington quite worried. The Pentagon’s soon-to-be published Electronic Warfare strategy calls for increased investment in advanced electronic warfare technology designed to defend U.S. assets and proactively use the electromagnetic spectrum to attack enemies....
Ukraine: The Key to Any American Russia Policy
Sagatom Saha Security, Eurasia The United States cannot pursue half measures that will intensify hostilities, unless it is fully prepared to counter all of the Kremlin’s escalations. Despite flirtations with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump will be pressed to confront Russia’s emboldened aggression when he takes office. Amid concerns of...
The Illusive Purposes of Toughness
Paul R. Pillar Russia Ukraine, Eastern Europe An assortment of issues connecting the president-elect of the United States to Russia range from official Russian interference in the election that Mr. Trump won, to the incoming president’s business interests in Russia, to potentially more serious allegations compiled by a former British...
