Stephen Kotkin
, professor of Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton comments on the current state of Russia-U.S. relations, the roots of tensions, and reasons of misunderstanding.
Could you please give an assessment to current condition of Russian-American relations and comment of the roots of it? Would you agree that the current state of the Russia-U.S. relations is the most alarming ever?
I don’t think either side expected the situation that we have now....
On May 12, 2015, US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Sochi, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov. The significance of Kerry’s visit should not be understated – US-Russia relations have once again deteriorated over the past year due to disagreements over the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine. How did the meeting go in light of such fundamental political differences? Aside from the crisis in Ukraine, what else was discussed?...
The week-long visit to the USA by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has left a quite ambiguous impression. One gets the sense that it was the Americans themselves who most needed this visit. In a situation where the US pivot towards Asia
[1]
proclaimed in 2011 is proceeding much more slowly than expected, now it is a time when the Americans need to actively demonstrate unity and mutual understanding with their Asian allies on issues of regional security and economic cooperation. Japan, which has...
The Ninth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has opened in New York. Representatives of NPT member nations meet once every five years to discuss the current state of nuclear arsenals and prospects for reducing them, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the development of peaceful nuclear energy. Despite the relative success of the previous conference that took place in 2010, experts are now forecasting a lack of progress at best...
The Future of Japanese Military Power
The Future of Japanese Military Power
Today, the Asia-Pacific region once again faces the Japanese question: is Japan a peace-broker or peace-breaker? What is the future for Japanese military power? So far, there are two main views on its military reforms. On the one hand, Abe’s aspiration is seen as a manifestation of a resurgent Japanese nationalism that used to drive the imperial project. On the other hand, these reforms are presented as a necessary...
The joint initiative of the Scandinavian and Finnish defense ministers to strengthen military ties with the Baltic countries and overall regional security is a very serious matter. It would appear to be a huge mistake to regard this idea as new or innovative, as well as to link the issue to Ukraine. An additional mistake lies in adopting a facile approach to the military and political capacity of a potential alliance. And we need to forget the fact that in the Northern and Baltic countries, defense...
The 2015 Riga Security Seminar devoted to the problems of preserving and strengthening security in Europe in the context of the Ukrainian crisis took place on April 9–10. The seminar was organized by the
Latvian Institute of International Affairs
and the
European Leadership Network
, with the support of the
Friederich Ebert Stiftung
and the U.S.
Nuclear Threat Initiative
.
The seminar was attended by experts, diplomats, members of parliament, government officials and the heads of NGOs from...
An open letter from Ivan Timofeev to his American counterpart Robert E. Berls Jr.
Last week the
Moscow Times
published an open letter by Robert Berls, senior adviser for Russia and Eurasia at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). In his letter to the Russian colleagues, Mr.Berls expressed his concern over deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. RIAC Program Director Ivan Timofeev responded to his letter and wrote his own one that we publish on the
Russia Direct
and RIAC website. ...
In 2016 the British government will have to decide on the future of its nuclear deterrent. Before then however, there is a national election (to be held on May, 7, 2015) to determine the composition of those decision-makers tasked with the job. While it appears likely that the deterrent will undergo modernisation, the issue is gaining more political attention and experiencing heightened scrutiny.
The UK has initiated a process of modernising its nuclear deterrent capability. Its current fleet of...
Igor Ivanov, President of the Russian International Affairs Council and Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2004, and Desmond Browne, former UK Secretary of State for Defence, have received the Nunn-Lugar Award for Promoting Nuclear Security, established by the Carnegie Endowment.
The formal ceremony took place in Washington on Monday. In his acceptance speech Igor Ivanov said: “
It is a great honour for me to receive this award. Sam Nunn and Dick Lugar are visionaries...
