It might be the case that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine depends greatly on the fate of Crimea towards the end of the conflict. Russia occupied the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 when the larger conflict began between the two nations. While little was done at the time by Western allies to stop […]
The enormous financial means that West Germany is still transferring to East Germany, 30 years after re-unification, suggest that Moscow’s grab of Crimea in 2014 has been an ill-calculated adventure. Sustaining over a long period of time the highly-subsidised economy of the annexed peninsula will be beyond the capacities of a more and more crisis-ridden […]
Four factors make further tensions between Russia and Ukraine along the shores of the Crimean peninsula and Azov Sea probable. On 25 November 2018, at the Kerch Strait, Russia attacked as well as captured three Ukrainian navy vessels, and arrested their 24 sailors. The maritime clash indicates that the focal point of the […]
On November 25, three Ukrainian naval vessels, two 54-ton gunboats (technically, Gyurza-M-class armored artillery cutters) and a tug, were traveling from Odessa around the Crimean Peninsula and toward the Sea of Azov, en route to the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. As they approached the Kerch Strait, the access route from the Black Sea to […]
[Translated from Ukrainian, by VoxUkraine.] The Kremlin media’s well-known narrative of a supposedly almost unanimous support among Crimea’s population as well as of the allegedly profound historical justification for the annexation has many supporters not only in Russia, but also among numerous Western politicians, journalists, experts, and diplomats. Often, these commentators consider themselves – in […]
Anti-Access/Area-Denial capabilities (A2/AD)—the ability to prevent an adversary from entering an area of land, sea, or air—have become a major component of military force postures for powers around the globe, but Russia is the most committed to advancing their development. Russian A2/AD capabilities are shaping NATO’s neighborhood and the Alliance needs a comprehensive strategy to […]
The president’s instincts, to which he alone is privy, are responsible for cutting through endless reams of Washington analysis paralysis and contributing to the start of (hopefully) results-based diplomacy.
The biggest Russian-Belarusian military exercise this year, started on September 14, 2017. Yet, this event has been analyzed by security pundits for months.
Understanding what Russian large-scale military exercises are designed to accomplish could offer answers and highlight areas that NATO should closely watch.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson concluded his visit to China earlier this month, pledging that relations between the two countries would be based on “non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation.”
2017 could be a watershed year for many countries, as various territorial disputes threaten to boil over amidst a climate of global uncertainty.
U.S.-Russian hostilities have decreased U.S. strategic options with respect to China, enabling Shinzo Abe’s own Russian diplomacy to be more fruitful.
Russia’s A2/AD “bubbles” around the Baltics, the Black Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arctic could dramatically constrain NATO’s freedom of movement.
At a gathering of NATO’s defense ministers, it was announced that nearly 4,000 troops forming four battalions would be stationed in the Baltics and Poland.
In 1939, an article entitled “Mourir pour Dantzig?” (“Why Die for Danzig?”) argued that France should avoid war with Germany if the latter seized Poland. Today, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as Russia’s belligerent foreign policy, leads us to ask similar questions.