Section: Brookings (USA)
Clash of the Titans brings down a Russian jet
Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet on the Syrian border on Wednesday has sparked a debate over whether this incident could lead to a full-fledged military confrontation between the two countries. The close economic interdependence that bolsters the current Turkish-Russian relationship would seem an incentive for both sides to keep the...
Russia’s perhaps-not-real super torpedo
On November 10, a Russian television broadcast of a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and some of his senior military officers revealed a “secret” plan for a long-range, nuclear-armed torpedo called Status-6. The broadcast on state-run Channel One showed a diagram of the torpedo, filmed over the shoulder of a Russian officer. According to...
What is the Russian military good for?
The Russian military intervention in Syria—launched in a great rush just over a month ago—came as a surprise; perhaps not as shocking as the swift occupation and annexation of Crimea, but a surprise nevertheless. But does Russia’s ability to surprise and to project force in Syria prove, as Garret Campbell claims, that Western attempts “to...
Ukraine’s long Russian entanglement
Marvin Kalb, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and veteran journalist, discusses his new book “Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine and the New Cold War” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). “I think since 1991 at the end of the Soviet Union, the end of Communism as a global philosophy, Ukrainians have come to understand that...
Ukraine’s long Russian entaglement
Marvin Kalb, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and veteran journalist, discusses his new book “Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine and the New Cold War” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). “I think since 1991 at the end of the Soviet Union, the end of Communism as a global philosophy, Ukrainians have come to understand that...
Forget Russia, European energy security begins at home
With Russian-European relations at a low ebb, now is a tricky time to push forward a new energy agreement between the two. Nevertheless, on September 4, a consortium of energy companies—including Gazprom, Shell, ENGIE, OMV, BASF, and E.ON—signed a shareholders’ agreement on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. With a total capacity of 55 billion...
One more time on avoiding a new Cold War
I do not want to unduly extend my debate with Jeremy Shapiro and Sam Charap about the trade-off between avoiding a new Cold War and negotiating with Russia over Ukraine. Their most recent blog post, however, misses two key points. Paying dues First, the Budapest Memorandum—in which Russia, Britain, and the United States committed to respect...
Putin’s Crimean gamble: Russia, Ukraine, and the new Cold War
Event Information October 26, 2015 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM EDTFalk Auditorium Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 Register for the Event Since the time of Catherine the Great, Crimea has been a global tinderbox. Most recently, the world was stunned when the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded...
Russia’s intervention in Syria: Protracting an already endless conflict
Russia’s intervention in Syria has introduced a dangerous new dynamic into an already volatile and complex conflict. Rather than advancing its self-proclaimed objective of fighting terrorism, many more Russian strikes have targeted moderate rebels — “vetted” and supported by the United States — as well as other...
Really, actually avoiding a new Cold War
Any interesting argument on foreign policy can be attacked from many, even opposing angles. So it is with enormous gratification that we see that our argument about the possibility and need to avoid a new Cold War with Russia has drawn fierce criticism from both Moscow and Washington. First, from Russia (with if not love than at least respect),...
