Section: The National Interest (USA)
We Now Know How Russia’s New Avangard Hypersonic Boost-Glide Weapon Will Launch
Dave Majumdar Security, Everything we know so far. Russia will apparently use surplus UR-100UTTKh (NATO: SS-19 Stiletto) and the RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as the launch vehicle for its Avangard hypersonic boost-glide weapon. The new weapons will initially be deployed onboard UR-100UTTKn missiles that...
America Must Ask More of Its NATO Allies
John R. Deni Security, Europe Conditionality creates the very instability that the NATO treaty was designed to eliminate in the first place, ultimately undermining U.S. security and economic well-being. The president’s 2019 budget proposes a 30 percent increase—to $6.5 billion—for the European Deterrence Initiative, a program that pays for...
What Does America Gain by Arming Ukraine?
Daniel L. Davis Security, Eurasia Sending these missiles isn’t enough to tip the military balance in Ukraine—but it is more than enough to convince Russia to increase its involvement. On March 1, the State Department authorized the sale of 210 Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a member of the Senate Armed...
Despite the Bluster, Russia Is Not 10 Feet Tall
Daniel R. DePetris Security, Eurasia Today, everything and anything related to Russia in one way or another is an all-consuming affair. Early 1950’s America was a bad time to be a supporter of the Soviet Union or an associate of the Communist Party. Even a mere whiff of being in cahoots with a Russian could get you hauled before Sen. Joseph...
Ukraine Is Building Its Own Tank-Killer Missiles to Fight Russia
Sebastien Roblin Security, But will they work? In June 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko famously requested exactly 1,240 Javelin missiles—one for every former Soviet nuclear warhead that Ukraine voluntarily decommissioned in the 1990s. The former Soviet state was ruing its lack of deterrence after Russian tanks and artillery intervened...
Donald Trump Prepares to Escalate Confrontation with Russia over Ukraine
Doug Bandow Security, Europe Providing lethal weapons would almost certainly encourage the Ukrainians to press for even heavier arms and escalate the fighting, as well as discourage them from negotiating a settlement. Most Americans were told Donald Trump won the presidential election last year. But his policy toward Russia looks suspiciously...
What I Learned From a Wartime Christmas Eve
Nolan Peterson Security, Perhaps, in the end, war is as perennial as any holiday and always will be. KYIV, Ukraine—The first time I ever saw a war, it was on Christmas Eve in 2009. At the time, I was a green Air Force special operations pilot on my first deployment to Afghanistan. I had already been in country for a few weeks, flying mostly day...
Nazi Germany Seemed Destined to Conquer Russia (until This Happened)
Warfare History Network History, Europe Weeks of heavy fighting produced the first Red Army victory of the war. The smell of victory was in the air as the forces of Field Marshal Fedor von Bock’s Army Group Center continued to drive deep into the Ukraine during the final week of June 1941. To most of the young soldiers of the army group it...
Russia Isn’t Going Away in Ukraine
Lyle J. Goldstein Security, Europe The developing escalation spiral needs to be halted before it ends in total catastrophe. The North Korea situation seems to bring U.S. national security “back to the future,” inviting Americans to seriously contemplate the prospect of nuclear war for the first time in decades. That is regrettable, and this...
Russia Isn’t Going Away in Ukraine
Lyle J. Goldstein Security, Europe The developing escalation spiral needs to be halted before it ends in total catastrophe. The North Korea situation seems to bring U.S. national security “back to the future,” inviting Americans to seriously contemplate the prospect of nuclear war for the first time in decades. That is regrettable, and this...
