Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Russia

NATO's New Strategic Partner

After decades of mistrust, the relationship between NATO and Russia is finally improving. A genuine partnership must develop in the long term, however at the summit in Lisbon on November 19 and 20, NATO intended to adopt a new strategy and also improve its relations with Russia. This is not the first time since the […]

read more

Cyber Isn't Just for Geeks

Saying “I’m writing my master’s thesis on cybersecurity” is akin to saying “I’m writing my thesis about the United States.” It is often quoted that the internet was developed more for interoperability than to address security concerns. The silver lining? Russia is still expanding its tech industry. The field is still growing and evolving. New technological developments, such as the adoption of iPv6 have yet to take hold. This means that there is still room (to a certain extent) to get in at the ground level.

read more

West and Russia: Do No Harm

West and Russia: Do No Harm

by Lilia Shevtsova Russia continues to drift through the zone of uncertainty. The global financial crisis forced the Russian elite to realize that the Russian petrostate would pose obstacles to economic revival and even stability. This elite understands today that reforms are the only way to stimulate economic growth and prevent the social turmoil. “Renewal […]

read more

Another spy scandal in Georgia

Another spy scandal in Georgia

Big news out of Georgia (which is where I am until 17 November), where thirteen men were arrested on charges of spying for Russia, Georgia’s nemesis. Most of the men were arrested in October, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs made the announcement on 5 November, perhaps due to Reuters breaking the story a week […]

read more

Leering Bear, Rising Dragon: Life Along the Sino-Russian Border Pt II

In this second installment we will look at the Russian reaction to increased Chinese immigration into the Russian Fareast and Siberia.  We will also speculate as to the future of the Sino-Chinese  relations along the border. Russian Reaction Despite the benefits to trade, the increased number of Chinese in Russia has been a catalyst for […]

read more

Leering Bear, Rising Dragon: Life Along the Sino-Russian Border Pt I

Leering Bear, Rising Dragon: Life Along the Sino-Russian Border Pt I

Since China’s border issues are a hot topic of late, I wanted to post an article by myself, that was previously published at Brooks Review Background The Chinese government declared 2006, The “Year of Russia”; and in turn, Russia celebrated 2007 as “The Year of China.” These mutual pronouncements were part of a decade long […]

read more

The Fire Next Time

The Fire Next Time

That, of course, is the title of James Baldwin’s famous two-essay collection.  Baldwin took it from the old spiritual, “Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep.” “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!” Well, I don’t like to get all biblical, but I bet a lot of folks in Russia and […]

read more

Finding the Silver Lining in the Bhopal Verdict

Can anything as shameful as the recent Bhopal verdict have a silver lining?

read more

Georgia: Russians build radar station, ruling party wins big in elections

Georgia: Russians build radar station, ruling party wins big in elections

As expected, President Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) won nation-wide in Georgia’s recent municipal elections, with Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava winning re-election with a vote of over 55% in the Tbilisi race, competing against eight other candidates. UNM got a stunning 66% of the popular vote across the country, a convincing mandate, although a little […]

read more

Bear-wrestling

Russia holds a unique place in the international economy. It isn’t the largest, fastest, strongest, or even scariest, but it is a heavyweight whose actions matter more than most. It ranked just 146 out of 180 countries on the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index, and had the 8th largest economy in the world in 2008 according […]

read more

When Dictators and Democracies agree…

When Dictators and Democracies agree…

Hold on to your hats. In my last post I mentioned that the US and Russia were in complete agreement over one of the core problems of the Internet. From the same Times story: During a panel discussion on computer crime, Col. Gen. Boris N. Miroshnikov, an official with the Russian Interior Ministry, and Stewart […]

read more

Cybersecurity Geopolitics

Governmental cyber officials from around the world met up in Germany this week to discuss international Internet security. The US hasn’t played a significant role in this hootenanny in the past. There are some huge differences between the US and Russia on the role of the Internet. We’re concerned about online crime, espionage and hacker […]

read more

New Start

I personally would characterize the treaty, like last December’s Copenhagen (climate) Accord, as the bare minimum acceptable.

read more

Best of the Web: The Fashion Edition

*Member of the European Parliament and former French Justice Minister Rachida Dati talks politics, class prejudice and fashion while “being fashion,” as my little cousin is fond of saying. My little cousin doesn’t think I am fashion because “you have to be fashion, you have to feel fashion…Fashion people go out to party every single […]

read more

Pipelines Are Political

Pipelines used to be just a way to get oil or gas from Point A to Point B — mostly political locally, especially for environmental reasons. Sometimes, they are locally strategic, the way they are in Nigeria — want to get the government’s or the company’s attention? Blow up a pipeline. Increasingly, they are geo-strategic, […]

read more

About Us

Foreign Policy Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks global developments on Great Decisions 2014 topics, daily. The FPB network is a production of the Foreign Policy Association.