Section: The National Interest (USA)
NATO Must Stop Crowding Russia
Ted Galen Carpenter Security, Russia Menacing moves on Moscow’s doorstep are a bad idea. The announcement that NATO would deploy four battalions of troops to the Baltic republics and Poland is merely the latest evidence that Western officials are utterly tone deaf about how their actions are going to be received in Moscow. The apparent...
Russia’s New Tanks, Lethal Stealth Fighters (and More) vs. NATO: Who Wins?
Kris Osborn Security, Europe The ultimate military question for 2016. How much of a threat do Russia’s emerging 5th-generation stealth fighter, nuclear arsenal, high-tech air defenses, anti-satellite weapons, conventional army and submarines pose to NATO and the U.S.? Current tensions between Russia and NATO are leading many to carefully...
Russia Is Losing Its Best and Brightest
Judy Twigg Society, Eurasia Highly educated Russians are racing for the exits—but does Putin care? Oil and natural gas prices are low. Western sanctions over Crimea continue to bite. Declining revenues have led the Russian government to demand another double-digit cut in state investment programs and administrative costs, with social spending...
Russia’s Deadly T-80 Tank vs. America’s M-1 Abrams: Who Wins?
Michael Peck Security, Europe It’s 1989, and the USSR just invaded Western Germany. The best Cold War weapons are about to square off. God favors the side with the bigger battalions, says the old military proverb. The Soviet Union didn’t believe in God, but heaven knows, it did swear by the bigger battalions. So what if some of those...
China and Russia Are No Match for World Order
Joshua W. Walker, Hidetoshi Azuma Global Governance, East Asia The G7 showed how provocations in Crimea and the South China Sea won’t work. This year’s G7 summit in Ise-shima, Japan was full of spectacles worthy of arresting headlines, including U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic embrace of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima...
The T-72B3: The Lethal Russian Tank That Ukraine Fears Most
Joseph Trevithick Security, Europe Upgraded and ready for war. In any war, certain weapons come to symbolize one side in the fighting, specific tactics or political factors. In that spirit, a specific tank has become the icon of Russia’s secret war in Ukraine. On June 3, 2016, Ukrainian blogger “sled_vzayt” posted a batch of evidence...
America Needs to Break its Old Habits on Russia
Thomas E. Graham Politics, Eurasia Washington’s strategy is a relic of a bygone era. The United States needs a new grand strategy for Russia. As the Ukraine crisis continues, there should be no doubt that the goal that had animated policy since the end of the Cold War—the slow but steady integration of Russia into the Euro-Atlantic...
What China Learned from America’s Biggest World War Two Naval Victory
Lyle J. Goldstein Global Governance, East Asia The Battle of Midway: The PLA Navy uses American strategies as a blueprint for future success. China’s aircraft carrier program is maturing. The first photos have now emerged that show Liaoning operating with a decent clutch of J-15 fighters, as well as helicopters on deck. The aircraft are now...
Taiwan Enters the Cross-Strait Relations Danger Zone
Robert C. O’Brien Security, Asia What will Taiwan’s new president do on defense issues as well as the China challenge? Taipei, Republic of China – The Republic of China (ROC), better known as Taiwan to most Americans, has been in the headlines since Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was sworn in as the...
Quite Possibly the Dumbest Military Concept Ever: A ‘Limited’ Nuclear War
Geoff Wilson, Will Saetren Security, Yes, you read that right. In the event of a rapidly escalating conflict with the Russians, should the United States conduct a “limited” nuclear strike to coerce the enemy to back down? Or, in Cold War nukespeak, should the United States “escalate to deescalate” the situation? Believe it or not, that is a real...
