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Mar 17, 2014

Moscow’s Move to Absorb Seized Territories Detours Russia Further from Rule of Law

By Paul Goble

Every language contains words which say more than those who use them intend or even recognize.  One such word or better suffix in Russia is “podobny” which means “like” or “analogous to.”  Thus, Russians sometimes speak of something being “science-like” — that is, something that looks like science but really isn’t. That suffix should be […]

Russia Ukraine

Article

Mar 17, 2014

Securing the Transatlantic Community: NATO is Not Enough

By Stanley R. Sloan and Sten Rynning

Comprehensive Security Needs Extend Beyond NATO’s Mandate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sharply interrupted a transatlantic debate over the utility of NATO amid the declared US “pivot to Asia” and the winding down of the alliance’s mission in Afghanistan. As NATO governments grapple for an immediate response to Russia’s aggression, they also must prepare in […]

NATO Security & Defense

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Mar 14, 2014

Russia’s Return to Africa

By J. Peter Pham

Two Decades After Pullback, Russia Chases Gas Resources, Minerals and UN Votes Ukraine, Georgia and the Middle East are not the only places Vladimir Putin’s Russia has put a muscular foreign policy on display. Quietly, but with equal determination, President Putin has directed a robust strategic push into a region farther from Russia’s borders – […]

Africa China

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Mar 12, 2014

Putin’s Failure in Crimea

By Paul Goble

Five Ways the Kremlin Has Weakened Itself at Home and Abroad Russian President Vladimir Putin and his supporters in Moscow and the West are explaining and justifying his invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea in various ways and celebrating the divisions and weaknesses of the West that it has highlighted, but in every case, they are treating […]

Russia Ukraine

Article

Mar 12, 2014

Crimea: Putin’s Afghanistan?

By Harlan Ullman

As President Vladimir Putin seems to be finalizing Russian suzerainty over Crimea, capitols in Europe and Washington are struggling to find ways to reverse this land grab.  Unfortunately, short of using force—a response no one considers sane—for the short term, the cupboard of options is relatively bare.  Canceling visas, boycotting the G-8 meeting in Sochi, […]

Russia Ukraine

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Mar 11, 2014

Post-Imperial Blues

By Robert A. Manning and James Clad

As Syria burns, Iran negotiations drag on and Ukraine melts down, the absence of decisive US action just about anywhere is causing great heartburn to the strategic mindset that brought you Iraq, Libya and other nation-building successes. US and EU helplessness in the face of Russian intervention in the Ukraine has turned that into an […]

United States and Canada

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Mar 8, 2014

The False Promise of a Piecemeal Approach to a WMD-Free Middle East

By Bilal Y. Saab

Almost two decades have passed since the Middle East Resolution – agreed by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – called to rid the region of all weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Yet the Middle East remains a heavily militarised theatre of conflict awash with such capabilities, […]

Israel Middle East

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Mar 6, 2014

Empty Tough Talk from US Hawks

By Rajan Menon

You would think it’s self-evident that Ukraine’s current crisis and the controversies sparked before its eruption by Iran’s nuclear program, China’s muscle-flexing against Japan and the Philippines over disputed tiny islands, and Syria’s continuing carnage are distinct—that they have little, if anything, in common. Well, you’d be wrong, at least in the eyes of the […]

China East Asia

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Mar 6, 2014

The Crimean War Revisited

By Ioan Mircea Pascu

History tends to repeat itself (especially if its lessons are forgotten). More than 160 years ago, in 1853, war broke out between France, Britain, Turkey and Piedmont on one side and Russia on the other. In military operations that stretched from the Baltic to the Romanian Principalities and the Crimean Peninsula, Russia was defeated and […]

Ukraine

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Mar 5, 2014

NATO’s Strategic Ace: Vladimir Putin

By Harlan Ullman

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was on the road to irrelevance. The most successful military alliance in history has lacked a real enemy since the Soviet Union disintegrated a quarter of a century ago.  After a dozen years of war in Afghanistan,  NATO’s role is coming to an ignominious end. Because of Afghan President […]

NATO Russia