The joint initiative of the Scandinavian and Finnish defense ministers to strengthen military ties with the Baltic countries and overall regional security is a very serious matter. It would appear to be a huge mistake to regard this idea as new or innovative, as well as to link the issue to Ukraine. An additional mistake lies in adopting a facile approach to the military and political capacity of a potential alliance. And we need to forget the fact that in the Northern and Baltic countries, defense...
The 2015 Riga Security Seminar devoted to the problems of preserving and strengthening security in Europe in the context of the Ukrainian crisis took place on April 9–10. The seminar was organized by the
Latvian Institute of International Affairs
and the
European Leadership Network
, with the support of the
Friederich Ebert Stiftung
and the U.S.
Nuclear Threat Initiative
.
The seminar was attended by experts, diplomats, members of parliament, government officials and the heads of NGOs from...
An open letter from Ivan Timofeev to his American counterpart Robert E. Berls Jr.
Last week the
Moscow Times
published an open letter by Robert Berls, senior adviser for Russia and Eurasia at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). In his letter to the Russian colleagues, Mr.Berls expressed his concern over deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. RIAC Program Director Ivan Timofeev responded to his letter and wrote his own one that we publish on the
Russia Direct
and RIAC website. ...
In 2016 the British government will have to decide on the future of its nuclear deterrent. Before then however, there is a national election (to be held on May, 7, 2015) to determine the composition of those decision-makers tasked with the job. While it appears likely that the deterrent will undergo modernisation, the issue is gaining more political attention and experiencing heightened scrutiny.
The UK has initiated a process of modernising its nuclear deterrent capability. Its current fleet of...
Igor Ivanov, President of the Russian International Affairs Council and Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2004, and Desmond Browne, former UK Secretary of State for Defence, have received the Nunn-Lugar Award for Promoting Nuclear Security, established by the Carnegie Endowment.
The formal ceremony took place in Washington on Monday. In his acceptance speech Igor Ivanov said: “
It is a great honour for me to receive this award. Sam Nunn and Dick Lugar are visionaries...
No one supports a Chinese challenge to American power in the region, not even Russia
Political pundits routinely identify the Asia-Pacific region as a potential flashpoint for a future war between the great powers. Yes, China is rising, Japan is rearming, and the United States has announced a "pivot" to Asia. But the real risk of a great power war in the Asia-Pacific is very low. When conflict scenarios are analyzed one by one, it becomes clear that no country in the region has an interest...
... North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the main threats to security include the proliferation of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, the spread of terrorism, the threat of cyber-attacks and fundamental environmental problems.
NATO seeks to strengthen international security through cooperation. Greater efforts will be spent in this regard in terms of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, with an emphasis on an open door policy in relations between all the European nations and significantly ...
The snowballing development of space-based weapons and looming militarization of space, although hardly imminent, pose a relatively new problem for Asia-Pacific, where there is real development potential that could, someday, make a surprise breakthrough.
There are several reasons to pay close attention to China’s space program and especially its military component. First, China is the region's biggest country, and boasts one of the world’s most secretive programs in this area, that is...
On March 10, 2015 Anton Mazur, head of the Russian Delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, announced that Russia was “suspending its participation” in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). This decision was hardly a sensation, rather a logical conclusion of the whole story of the Treaty, whose provisions had remained ink on paper since being adapted at the OSCE Istanbul summit back in 1999.
The ratification of the Istanbul agreement...
On March 11, 2015, RIAC Program Manager Natalia Evtikhevich was in Stockholm to take part in a seminar “
The OSCE’s Role in Consolidating European Security
” held within the
Helsinki+40
project by the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
, the Swedish Parliament and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (
UI
). The event was attended by Cochairman of “Helsinki+40” project Joao Soares, OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver, UI Director Mats Karllson and SIPRI Chairman...
