Section: Brookings (USA)
LIVE WEBCAST – Charting Japan’s Arctic strategy
Event Information October 19, 2015 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDTSaul/Zilkha Rooms Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 Register for the Event #JapanArctic Tweets Japan’s presence in the Arctic is not new, but it has been limited mostly to scientific research. Japan has stepped up its engagement after it...
Charting Japan’s Arctic strategy
Event Information October 19, 2015 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDTSaul/Zilkha Rooms Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 Register for the Event Japan’s presence in the Arctic is not new, but it has been limited mostly to scientific research. Japan has stepped up its engagement after it gained observer status...
A three-sided disaster: The American, Russian, and Iranian strategic triangle in Syria
After over four years of fighting, the civil war in Syria is still clearly nowhere near its end. None of the three main power groups—Bashar Assad’s government forces, the Syrian opposition, or the Islamic State (or ISIS)—have been able to obtain a decisive victory. Recent outside interventions haven’t dramatically altered the...
Avoiding a new Cold War. Really?
Writing on this blog—in “Why a new Cold War can be avoided”—Jeremy Shapiro and Samuel Charap pose a stark choice between a new Cold War and Washington negotiating with Moscow on a settlement for Ukraine. They make an interesting case. But they overstate the risk of a Cold War, appear ready to negotiate over the head of a smaller state, and do not...
Russia’s Syrian entanglement: Can the West sit back and watch?
For observers who are confined by the boundaries of conventional strategic sense, every day of Russia’s military intervention in Syria brings fresh surprises. Indiscriminate strikes against Turkey-backed and CIA-trained opposition groups (which could not possibly be mistaken for ISIS) were followed by deliberate violations of Turkey’s...
Why a new Cold War can be avoided
All is not well in U.S.-Russia relations. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine—and its new airstrikes in Syria—have brought the two to lows not seen since the Cold War. Presidents Obama and Putin sniping at each other from the rostrum of the U.N. General Assembly only accentuated that divide. But does this...
Putin’s deafness on Syria
It would be easy to get the impression from media coverage that Putin’s decision to intervene militarily in Syria is some kind of genius strategic move — a bold and brilliant gambit that will weaken the US in the Middle East, or at least dramatically limit its influence in the region. Headlines this week have blared that Putin has...
Toward a ‘Reaganov’ Russia: Assessing trends in Russian national security policy after Putin
Event Information October 5, 2015 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EDTSaul/Zilkha Rooms Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 Register for the Event During their recent speeches before the United Nations General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama traded strong words on issues from...
Yesterday, the Northern Lights went out: The Arctic and the future of global energy
This week, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it would postpone oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea and the broader American Arctic indefinitely. The decision came in the wake of disappointing output from its Burger field, the high costs associated with the project (already nearing $7 billion), the “challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory...
Why a new Cold War with Russia is inevitable
This is a critical moment in U.S-Russia relations. The civil war in Ukraine is settling into a mutually hurtful stalemate; a workable nuclear deal with Iran has been concluded; and Russia is ramping up its presence in Syria, which increases the danger of confrontation with the United States but also opens up the potential for cooperation against...
