Section: The National Interest (USA)
Why Lethal Aid Can’t Help Ukraine
Julie Thompson Security, Europe Arming Ukraine could put the United States in an awkward position vis-à-vis its NATO allies. On Thursday, weeks after rumors swirled around Washington that the State Department and Pentagon want the president to arm Ukraine, Secretary of Defense James Mattis confirmed that the White House is considering sending...
Why Lethal Aid Can’t Help Ukraine
Julie Thompson Security, Europe Arming Ukraine could put the United States in an awkward position vis-à-vis its NATO allies. On Thursday, weeks after rumors swirled around Washington that the State Department and Pentagon want the president to arm Ukraine, Secretary of Defense James Mattis confirmed that the White House is considering sending...
The Real Danger of Sending U.S. Arms to Ukraine
Brian Milakovsky Security, Eurasia Putin could regard U.S. arms transfers as a symbolic test of who dictates conditions in the Donbass warzone. In 2015, after spending several months in the frontline zone I wrote that Ukraine desperately needs a “lousy peace” and not an arms race. Two years and several thousand deaths later, the idea of supplying...
We Still Don’t Know How Trump’s Administration Will Handle Ukraine
Nikolas K. Gvosdev Security, Europe In Kiev, Mattis could provide no definitive answers to questions about what is likely to change. Last December, in these very pages, I warned that a particular danger the new Trump administration would face in the national security field would be the problem of senior figures issuing “contradictory statements”...
Getting America and Russia Back to Normal
Robert Legvold Politics, Europe Putin and his entourage, the Trump administration, and the U.S. Congress have a large choice to make. Note: this article is part of a symposium on U.S.-Russia relations included in the September/October 2017 issue of the National Interest. Trump and his people, and Putin and his, say the same thing: the two...
Russia’s Super Strange Kiev-Class Aircraft Carriers: Submarine and Carrier-Killer?
Kyle Mizokami History, Europe And some are sitting as museum ships in China. At the tail end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union produced a number of unique aircraft carriers. Known as the Kiev class, the carriers were the Soviets’ initial foray into the world of fixed wing naval aviation, and the only Soviet carriers to become fully...
Russia’s Super Strange Kiev-Class Aircraft Carriers: Submarine and Carrier-Killer?
Kyle Mizokami History, Europe And some are sitting as museum ships in China. At the tail end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union produced a number of unique aircraft carriers. Known as the Kiev class, the carriers were the Soviets’ initial foray into the world of fixed wing naval aviation, and the only Soviet carriers to become fully...
America and Russia: Time to Come Clean
Dov S. Zakheim Politics, Europe The first order of business between the two countries may be the hardest. Note: this article is part of a symposium on U.S.-Russia relations included in the September/October 2017 issue of the National Interest. The United States and Russia, apart perhaps from their respective presidents, are very much at...
The Path to U.S.-Russia Cooperation
Zalmay Khalilzad Security, Americas For the United States, managing Russian decline requires pursuing a balance-of-power approach to minimize the risk of escalation. Note: this article is part of a symposium on U.S.-Russia relations included in the September/October 2017 issue of the National Interest. Despite the array of twists and turns since...
America and Russia: Back to Basics
Graham Allison Security, Europe However demonic, however destructive, however devious, however deserving of being strangled Russia is, the brute fact is that we cannot kill this bastard without committing suicide. President Trump can improve relations with Russia in ways that advance American national interests by going back to Cold War...
