2014-06-09 by Richard Weitz For the third year in a row, Russia and China conducted a major bilateral naval exercise last month, following the previous joint drills off the coast of Russia’s Far East in July 2013 and those in China’s Yellow Sea in April 2012. The Russians called the…
2014-06-16 by Robbin Laird Inside the Beltway is a tough place to get real changes done. And innovation within the confines of the Pentagon is notably challenging. This decade will see significant innovation generated by the strategic and combat challenges facing American and allied forces and the introduction of several new…
2014-06-14 by Ed Timperlake On the eve of the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of World War I, there is a word describing German Army doctrine employed in their advance into neutral Belgium that resonates to this day: “Schrecklichkeit”. The word means “terror” or “frightfulness” a doctrine employed by the…
2014-06-13 by Robbin Laird As the Middle East moves further from an Arab Spring congenial to Western interests, the tinderbox returns. In the tinder box, one rarely gets to choose the folks one likes; one has to work with whomever one can to achieve one’s strategic interests. It is not…
2014-06-02 By Robbin Laird Earlier, I had the chance to interview Admiral Wang on Arctic issues. In that interview, the Admiral provided an overview on the various states involved in Arctic security and focused on the key challenges facing the Kingdom of Denmark, which is to say managing the relationships…
2014-06-07 By Robbin Laird The Arctic opening is a significant global event. There are a number of key stakeholders in the opening up of the Arctic, with both convergent and conflictual elements at play. Any time conflict is part of the equation, defense capabilities come into play, and they come…
2014-06-06 In the most recent Russia Direct Monthly Memo (#11 June 2014), Vassily Kashin, Senior Research Fellow at the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies focuses on what he terms “Russia Reorients to the Orient.” The Ukrainian crisis marks an important moment in Russian-Chinese relations, catalyzing the creation…
2014-06-05 By Robbin Laird In a comprehensive look at Russian strategies in the High North, Marlene Laruelle has published a recent book entitled Russia's Arctic Strategies and the Future of the Far North. The book provides a number of key elements whereby one can puzzle over the approaches which the…
