... paragraph 9 about NATO’s openness to political dialogue, its unwillingness to seek confrontation and about its commitment to the NATO-Russia Founding Act. However, the latter point is phrased in such a way that it can be interpreted as the Alliance’s refusal to discuss Russia’s concerns about the principle of rotation deployments, which in the eyes of Moscow in the past years de facto has become barely distinguishable from additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces.
Additional concerns ...
The Soviet Union might have lost the first Cold War, but Russia is ahead in the rematch with the US and, this time, has every chance of coming out on top
The Soviet Union might have lost the first Cold War, but Russia is ahead in the rematch with the US and, this time, has every chance of coming out on top. That's according to one well-known Moscow scholar, Sergey Karaganov.
Speaking to Russian newspaper Argumenty I Fakty, the academic argued that Moscow is now much stronger than it was during...
Claims to global leadership should imply additional responsibilities from the part of the United States
US President Joe Biden in late May directed the US intelligence community to redouble their efforts in investigating the origins of the coronavirus and report back to him in 90 days.
There is nothing wrong about the intention to get the full picture of the global pandemic—all of us would like to see remaining blank spots in the COVID-19 genesis properly filled. However, it is not quite clear...
National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn interviews Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States of America H. E. Anatoly Antonov
Heilbrunn:
President Vladimir Putin has recently published a new essay on Ukraine stating that Ukrainians and Russians are the same people. He also indicated that there are red lines that neither Ukraine nor NATO would be allowed to cross. Some say Putin is laying the groundwork for tougher action on Ukraine. Have you communicated anything like that to the...
Comments by Andrey Baklitskiy, Victor Esin, Olga Oliker, Alexander Saveliev and Dmitry Stefanovich
To mark the anniversary of START I signed in Moscow on July 31, 1991, the Russian International Affairs Council asked strategic arms control experts several questions about the importance of START I and the prospects for new treaties to be signed.
Why was START I a breakthrough? What explains the success in negotiating and signing the treaty?
Could any elements from START I be used in subsequent “START-like”...
“Enlightened self-interest” and “invisible hands” as guiding principles have not served the global community well
“Enlightened self-interest” and “invisible hands” as guiding principles have not served the global community well. If the challenge of the current pandemic is ever to be decisively surmounted, it is going to be through a joint response. The hope is that this common effort will be transformational for the global community and will lead to emergence of new pathways and institutions for...
... deterrence doctrine emerged as a symbiosis of two elements: the idea of using military force to put political pressure on an adversary, and the revolution in nuclear physics that had created a weapon of boundless destructive power. The first element is thousands of years old; the second did not generate the nuclear deterrence doctrine immediately.
President Harry Truman recalled after the first nuclear bomb test of July 16, 1945 that he “regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt ...
The situation in Syria has not been resolved and is not yet close to a geopolitical equilibrium
The world community survived the UN vote on the mechanism for delivering cross-border aid to Syria. On the agenda was the issue of the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint, which stopped functioning on July 11, 2021. This checkpoint on the Turkish-Syrian border is the last of four to be shut down since the mechanism began its work. It supplies humanitarian aid to the last de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria –...
The revision of the sanctions policy by the new administration cannot be called a revolution. The institutional arrangement will remain unchanged
In the United States, a revision of the sanctions policy
is in full swing
. Joe Biden’s administration strives to make sanctions instruments more effective in achieving his political goals and, at the same time, reducing political and economic costs. The coordination of restrictive measures with allies is also seen as an important task. Biden is cautiously...
On July 15, 2021, Eurasia Group, an international political risk consultancy, held a briefing for Russia-oriented businesses focusing on Russia-the U.S. relations, Russian foreign policy, and the prospects for the country's socio-economic development
On July 15, 2021, Eurasia Group, an international political risk consultancy, held a briefing for Russia-oriented businesses focusing on Russia-the U.S. relations, Russian foreign policy, and the prospects for the country's socio-economic development...
