Since cyber operations are becoming more prominent and attacks more political, Russia has chosen to protect itself by directly regulating and monitoring its cyber domain
Cyber warfare is
becoming
more prominent and frequent than ever before in the international arena. Struggle for hegemony, influence and power pushes international actors, mainly states, into developing their cyber capabilities to spy, sabotage and influence other actors. Globalization and the proliferation of knowledge, know-how...
Crisis is not just a convenient pretext but also a solid reason for shaking up one's old foreign political "wardrobe"
Like every major global crisis, the coronavirus pandemic both generates additional risks, challenges and threats to every state’s foreign policy and opens up new opportunities and prospects. Russia is no exception in this. The specific nature of Russia’s case lies, we believe, in its opportunities being mostly tactical and situational, while the threats it faces are strategic...
The Monkey King cannot sit it out atop the mountain
Mao Zedong once summed up his philosophy on foreign policy with the following metaphor, "a wise monkey sitting on top of the mountain to watch the two tigers fight in the valley below.” The tigers in the Great Helmsman’s formulation were, of course, Moscow and Washington, and Beijing was the wise monkey. And China was able to play the role of “wise monkey” in its foreign affairs quite successfully for a number of years, skillfully manoeuvring...
Familiar Problems and New Challenges for Russia
Crises come and go, and life goes on. In early 2015, at the height of the Ukrainian crisis, RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov wrote an article entitled “
Seven Steps Beyond the Horizon of the Crisis
” in which he proposed that we think about how Russia would build relations with the rest of the world “after Ukraine.”
Five years later and the crisis has brought about neither compromise nor the collapse of Ukrainian statehood, and relations between...
... Latin America and the never-ending political crisis in the United Kingdom, as well as numerous armed attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and wild oscillations in U.S.–China relations.
Andrey Kortunov:
Russia Is Winning, but Here’s the Catch
Russia's foreign policy has been an utter success compared to the chronic instability and volatility that has become characteristic of the international situation. Even Moscow's most ardent critics cannot deny that Russia has pursued a consistent foreign ...
