... Founding Act, and so on. There was a surge of trade, investments, tourism and civil society interaction between the East and the West. Unfortunately, it turned out that the two sides had very different perceptions about very fundamental dimensions of international security and global governance.
In the West, they assumed that the future international system should have at its core primarily Western institutions—like NATO and the European Union—that would gradually expand and absorb former socialist nations of Central and Eastern Europe. The assumption was that the West would define the rules of the game within the new system, while the Rest would have to accept ...
... almost open nuclear game, but in different forms and with different objectives. Both Russia and the United States are well aware of the presence of the nuclear weapons factor in this conflict. Russia's main objective is to deter the United States and NATO from directly intervening in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The U.S., on the other hand, tends to believe that Russia will not or dare not use nuclear weapons and can therefore boldly provide military support to Ukraine. Both sides are at loggerheads,...
.... It is unclear, Mr. von der Schulenburg suggests, what positive outcome can be achieved through an escalation, and it is certain that it will not bring peace to Europe.
The conflict has evolved into what he believes is a struggle between Russia and NATO, with nuclear weapons becoming a critical factor in military planning. It is impossible to predict the limitations of such a “decisive battle,” beyond which a nuclear escalation might occur. In persisting with all-out warfare, European leaders,...
There is no way Ukraine and NATO can “win” the military confrontation against Russia, and the best-case scenario they can project is tying down Russia in an endless conflict
In welcoming Finland to NATO during a visit to Helsinki on June 2, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...
The world really needs to question is the very fundamental requirement and existence of “NATO” itself
On 4 April 2023, Finland formally became the 31st country of the NATO security alliance. Western scholars argue that Finland’s joining has further strengthened the Western collective alliance that would enable a greater security framework ...
... What used to be called the Nordic balance—having different security profiles, taking each other’s basic interests into account but not forming a Nordic alliance with uniform policies—has been incrementally demolished in consequence of the U.S./NATO provocative expansion since 1990 that broke all the well-documented promises made at the time by the West’s leaders to Mikhail Gorbachev about not expanding NATO one inch eastwards if he accepted a re-unified Germany in NATO.
The NATO-Russia
deadlock
...
The future of Japan cannot be based only on its partnerships with the US and NATO, as important as this partnership is for Tokyo. This future also depends on Japan's relations to its Eurasian neighbors
The recent international tour of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida turned out to be one of the most remarkable events of ...
... replaced by appinions.
Aleksey Arbatov:
The Ukrainian Crisis and Strategic Stability
Tomorrow brings yesterday: we are heading for perpetual war, with the danger of the obliteration of most of humanity. Those of us who remember have only to recall how NATO, instead of disbanding, ignored Russia’s concerns and attempts at serious dialogue, expanded, and then illegally bombed Belgrade, ignoring the UN. That was not enough, as the West then destroyed Iraq (lying, into the bargain) and Libya, and tried ...
Working paper № 69 / 2022
Working paper № 69 / 2022
The working paper explores the factors that predetermined the Western switch from divergence to convergence in the 2020s along with the key features of the commenced consolidation within the ranks of the Collective West. Is current Western unity incidental or strategic? Is it transient or long-standing? How much do the interests of the major power centers of the Collective West diverge? How likely is this unity to extend to subsequent engagement...
... required. Developing submarine, air and missile defense in the Arctic is also perceived as extremely important in bolstering the national defense potential. The implication is that the Northern Fleet must be capable of assisting the Baltic Fleet on NATO’s eastern flank, while also interacting with the Pacific Fleet in case any threat emanates from the Asia-Pacific.
Direct and explicit threat
The threats and dangers faced by Russia in the Arctic can be divided into those that already exist and ...
