Putin’s Unconventional Tools for Destabilizing Neighbors and Undermining NATO

MENASource
Aug 25, 2024

After a failed attack, Hezbollah’s propaganda seeks to prevent a wider war with Israel

By
David Daoud

Committed as Hezbollah is to saving its Gaza-based allies, the group does not currently want a full war with Israel.

Conflict
Israel

Putin’s Unconventional Tools for Destabilizing Neighbors and Undermining NATO

New Atlanticist
Aug 21, 2024

How quickly can Taiwan integrate US weapon systems? Speed is essential to help deter China.

By
Adam Kozloski

To better prepare Taiwan to defend itself, the United States needs more transparency into Taipei’s weapons integration challenges.

Conflict
Defense Policy

Putin’s Unconventional Tools for Destabilizing Neighbors and Undermining NATO

UkraineAlert
Aug 21, 2024

Invasion? What invasion? Putin is downplaying Ukraine’s Kursk offensive

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin’s efforts to downplay Ukraine’s invasion of Russia have severely dented his strongman image and make a mockery of the West’s escalation fears, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy

Programs

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Content

Entrance to Sloviansk City Council, April 14, 2014

NATOSource

May 9, 2014

Putin’s Unconventional Tools for Destabilizing Neighbors and Undermining NATO

By Massimo Calabresi, TIME

Over the last decade, Putin has established a well-organized, well-funded and often subtle overt and covert operation in the vast swath of neighboring countries, from Estonia on the Baltic Sea to Azerbaijan in the Caucuses, say western and regional government officials.

NATO
Northern Europe
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nov. 19, 2010

NATOSource

May 9, 2014

Is Canada Pulling Its Weight in NATO?

By Roland Paris, CIPS

NATO has long called upon its members to maintain military spending at 2 percent of GDP. However, few alliance members have met this target.

NATO
Security & Defense
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at Tallinn University, May 9, 2014

NATOSource

May 9, 2014

NATO Chief: Russia’s Actions in Ukraine are Outrageous, Irresponsible, Illegal, and Illegitimate

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine are outrageous. They are irresponsible, they are illegal, they are illegitimate.

NATO
Northern Europe

AfricaSource

May 9, 2014

“Boko Haram’s evolving threat”: J. Peter Pham report for the National Defense University

By J. Peter Pham

Worth reading again: two years ago Dr. Pham authored a report for the US National Defense University on Boko Haram that recent events in Nigeria have proven remains relevant today. In the brief, Dr. Pham reaches back to the 1940s to place the group in its proper social, historical, and political context, and traces its […]

Africa
Conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Karelia, April 28, 2014

NATOSource

May 9, 2014

Putin’s Nordic Shadow and Finland’s Growing Interest in NATO

By James Kirchick, Foreign Policy

[I]n the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the once-dormant debate about joining NATO is heating up in both Finland and its Nordic neighbor, Sweden.

NATO
NATO Partnerships
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, December 4, 2009

NATOSource

May 8, 2014

NATO Official: Russia Now An Adversary

By Robert Burns, AP

After two decades of trying to build a partnership with Russia, NATO now feels compelled to start treating Moscow as an adversary, the alliance’s second-ranking official said Thursday.

NATO
Russia

In the News

May 8, 2014

Healey on How to Weather Internet Attacks

By Jason Healey

Cyber Statecraft Initiative Director Jason Healey is quoted by Risk and Insurance on how resiliency is crucial for withstanding inevitable Internet attacks:

Cybersecurity
Security & Defense
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, May 8, 2014

NATOSource

May 8, 2014

NATO Sees No Sign of Russian Troop Pullback from Ukraine Border

By AFP

NATO said Thursday it had yet to see “any indications” that Russia has withdrawn its troops from the Ukraine border, a day after President Vladimir Putin claimed to have done so.

NATO
Russia
REUTERS/Gary Cameron

AfricaSource

May 7, 2014

US help against Boko Haram: “Everything we can do” is not very much

By Bronwyn Bruton

Amid surging public outrage in Nigeria and abroad over Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 223 schoolgirls, President Barack Obama has promised that the United States will do “everything it can” to rescue them. His promise follows a pledge by Secretary of State John Kerry to do “everything possible” to help the Nigerian government defeat Boko Haram, […]

Conflict
Extremism
SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, May 5, 2014

NATOSource

May 7, 2014

NATO Scrambles to Knit Together a Cyberwar Strategy in Face of Attacks

By Murray Brewster, Canadian Press

Moscow’s stealth annexation of Crimea was accompanied by a highly co-ordinated cyber campaign aimed at civilian and military targets — a brutally effective effort, said U.S. Gen. Phillip Breedlove, who is visiting Canada this week.

Cybersecurity
NATO
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Experts

European Leadership Accelerator Participant

Raphaela Schweiger

Director, Global Issues, Robert Bosch Foundation

Millennium Leadership Program

Europe & Eurasia Human Rights

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Dan Rothem

Nonresident Senior Fellow, N7 Initiative

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Conflict Hebrew

Fellow

Jake Sotiriadis

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Policy Europe & Eurasia

Staff

Gabrielle Ellicott

Program Assistant

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Policy Democratic Transitions

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Brianne Todd

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Eurasia Center

Central Asia English

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David M. Cattler

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Transatlantic Security Initiative

Defense Industry English
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Events

Online Event Fri, January 30, 2026 • 9:00 am ET

How Russia’s winter warfare strategy targets Ukrainian civilians
Conflict Europe & Eurasia Geopolitics & Energy Security Human Rights
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Central Europe Week 2026: Facing a new strategic reality

A week of conversations highlighting Central Europe’s role in the transatlantic community.
Central Europe Eastern Europe Europe & Eurasia European Union
Public Event Fri, February 6, 2026 • 11:00 am ET

How Moscow manufactured the myth of Putin’s inevitable victory
Artificial Intelligence Disinformation Europe & Eurasia Internet