Monthly Newsletter

Who is SSI?

The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College publishes national security and strategic research and analysis which serves to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.

Europe and Russia - Recent

NATO continues to provide security and stability in Europe itself, but also will extend its influence through security missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regions seeking a way out of their security dilemmas. SSI focuses on issues throughout Western and Eastern Europe, with Russia commanding a lead in the number of studies. Dr. Stephen Blank is our Europe and Russia specialist.

New References from the Military Education Research Library Network

Europe and Russia

(3/11/08) The Europe and Eurasia Regional Policy Overview has been updated to include remarks from President Bush's meeting with the Polish Prime Minister, Secretary of Defense Gates' press conference with the Turkish Defense Minister, remarks from teh Assistant Secretary of State's meeting with the President of Kosovo, a Congressional hearing on the future of Kosovo, and an article on the Baltics from Current History. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this region - the newest updates are in bold. (View it at NDU)

Europe and Russia

(3/7/08) The Russia MiPAL has been updated with articles on Putin's role in the Russian government from Washington Quarterly, an analysis of Russia and international politics from International Affairs, a Congressional Research Service report on the presidential succession, and reports on U.S. relations with Russia from the CATO Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Strategic Studies Institute. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this country - the newest updates are in bold. (View it at NDU)

Europe and Russia

(2/19/08) The Europe and Eurasia Regional Policy Overview has been updated with reaction to Kosovo's independence from the White House and the State Department, and a report with background information on Kosovo from the United States Institute of Peace. Please see the Recently Added Documents section for the latest on this region - the newest updates are in bold. (View it at NDU)

Europe and Russia

Added September 12, 2012

Perspectives on Russian Foreign Policy

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
Charles de Gaulle said that states are cold monsters. To see how perhaps one of the coldest of these monsters thinks about and acts in world politics take a look at these essays from SSI’s annual Russia conference of September 26-27, 2011.
Added August 10, 2012

Arms Control and European Security

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank, COL Louis H. Jordan, Jr.
Is the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty dead, or waiting to be reborn? These three papers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia illuminate the complexities and dilemmas facing any attempt to raise the vexed issue of conventional arms control in Europe.
Added August 01, 2012

Against All Odds: Relations between NATO and the MENA Region

Authored by Dr. Florence Gaub.
Whereas NATO had no relationships with the Middle East and North Africa at all until 1994, it has expanded now to an extent where the League of Arab States mandated its Libya mission in 2011. This monograph explains this unlikely development.
Added August 01, 2012

2012-13 Key Strategic Issues List

Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The purpose of the Key Strategic Issues List is to provide military and civilian researchers a ready reference for issues of special interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense.
Added June 07, 2012

Can Russia Reform? Economic, Political, and Military Perspectives

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
Can or will Russia reform its state, economy, and armed forces at the same time? These papers provide an answer to those questions.
Added May 22, 2012

The Role of Small States in the Post-Cold War Era: The Case of Belarus

Authored by Dr. Dmitry Shlapentokh.
The absence of a single center of power or a few centers of power — as was the case during the Cold War — provides the opportunity even for small states, sandwiched between much stronger states, to move with comparative ease from one center of power to another. Even when small states become finally attached to one of these centers, their attachment is not absolute, and freedom of action is still preserved. This provides the opportunity for small states, such as Belarus, to move from one center of power to another or to engage in a sort of geopolitical gamesmanship.
Added December 23, 2011

Organizational Change in the Russian Airborne Forces: The Lessons of the Georgian Conflict

Authored by Dr. Rod Thornton.
Russia’s best troops are to be found in the Airborne Forces. These were the only Russian troops to emerge with their reputation intact after the conflict with Georgia in 2008. They can represent a formidable foe. This monograph examines the current state of the Airborne Forces and why they might be seen as "formidable."
Added November 22, 2011

Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
A new work by leading Russian, European, and U.S. experts analyzing the multiple issues of force structure, doctrine, strategy, and Russian national security policy connected with Russia’s reliance on nuclear weapons as the main deterrent of threats to its security.
Added October 31, 2011

Arms Control and Proliferation Challenges to the Reset Policy

Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
What are the prospects for further progress in the reset policy with Russia regarding arms control and nuclear proliferation by North Korea and Iran? This monograph attempts to postulate where we are, and possibly where we should be going, or will be going, with respect to these issues.
Added October 21, 2011

The Afghanistan Question and the Reset in U.S.-Russian Relations

Authored by Dr. Richard J. Krickus.
The ability of the United States and Russia to cooperate in Afghanistan represents a solid test of their reset in relations. Skeptics in Washington cite the value gap that separates the two sides as well as compelling evidence that the Kremlin is bent on a course of confrontation and not cooperation with the West. Russian critics claim that there is no justification for Moscow to help Washington in what many Kremlin overlords believe is a losing cause.
Added October 18, 2011

Natural Gas as an Instrument of Russian State Power

Authored by Alexander Ghaleb.
This monograph supports Robert Gates's recent assessment that NATO could face a dim if not dismal future; not because of funding considerations, but because NATO decisions are made by consensus, and many members will be unlikely to side against Russia in the future because of their heavy dependency on Russian Natural Gas.
Added July 21, 2011

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union's Common Security and Defense Policy: Intersecting Trajectories

Authored by Mr. Sarwar A. Kashmeri.
The author concludes that NATO is increasingly dysfunctional. Unless it is grafted in a supporting role to the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), NATO will soon become irrelevant to transatlantic security needs.
Added July 13, 2011

Russia in the Arctic

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
The Arctic is the newest sphere of international competition for energy and security access. It pits Russia against the other Arctic states. These essays fully explore and analyze what is at stake here and what Moscow has done to increase its capability and influence in the Arctic.
Added June 30, 2011

The European Campaign: Its Origins and Conduct

Authored by Dr. Samuel J. Newland, Dr. Clayton K. S. Chun.
Given the significance of World War II and the interest in the European Campaign, the authors offer a fresh look at the operations involved in winning the war in Europe.
Added June 15, 2011

Military Modernization and the Russian Ground Forces

Authored by Dr. Rod Thornton.
Russia’s political leaders are currently pushing a state- and society-wide process of modernization. How will the deeply conservative Russian military accept and implement those proposed changes?
Added June 09, 2011

The Russian Military and the Georgia War: Lessons and Implications

Authored by Dr. Ariel Cohen, Colonel Robert E. Hamilton.
In this monograph, the authors state that Russia planned the war against Georgia in August 2008 aiming for the annexation of Abkhazia, weakening the Saakashvili regime, and prevention of NATO enlargement. According to them, while Russia won the campaign, it also exposed its own military as badly needing reform. The war also demonstrated weaknesses of the NATO and the European Union security systems.
Added April 19, 2011

Central Asian Security Trends: Views from Europe and Russia

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
The war in Afghanistan has made Central Asia an ever more important strategic theater and one over which many states compete to exert influence. This monograph comprehensively analyzes Russia's efforts to exert its influence in the region through 2010.
Added March 15, 2011

Russian Military Politics and Russia's 2010 Defense Doctrine

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
These three papers illuminate the political struggles among the government and the military in Russia to forge a new defense doctrine and ultimately the 2010 doctrine itself. No analysis of Russian defense or security policy is complete without the understanding and analysis provided here.
Added January 25, 2011

Civil-Military Relations in Medvedev's Russia

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
Civil-military relations in Russia are a critical topic in understanding the domestic and foreign policy trajectories of the Russian state. This monograph show how highly undemocratic, and even dangerous, the absence of those democratic controls over the military and the police forces in Russia, when taken together, comprise multiple militaries.
Added December 08, 2010

Russia's Prospects in Asia

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
To what degree should we take Russia seriously as an important actor in Asia? The three chapters here, taken from an SSI conference in January 2010, actively debate the prospects for Russia as it makes its way in an increasingly complex Asian environment characterized by China’s rising power and multiple threats, such as proliferation in Korea and the Taiwan issue.
Added October 15, 2010

Operation EUFOR TCHAD/RCA and the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy

Authored by Mr. Bjoern H. Seibert.
In the post-September 11, 2001 security environment, the United States faces a complex combination of threats from state to nonstate actors, many with regional or even global reach. Weak and fragile states have become a U.S. security challenge because they provide breeding grounds for terrorism, weapons proliferation, and trafficking in humans and narcotics. How does the U.S. propose to answer this challenge?
Added September 02, 2010

Candidly, One Friend to Another

Authored by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the September 2010 newsletter.
Added July 14, 2010

The Russian Military Today and Tomorrow: Essays in Memory of Mary Fitzgerald

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank, Dr. Richard Weitz.
The essays in this volume represent both a memorial and an analytical call to action. Mary Fitzgerald of the Hudson Institute was one of the most brilliant and vivacious practitioners of the study of the Russian and Chinese militaries, whose insights helped not just to put those fields of study on the map, but also to influence U.S. military thinking.
Added July 09, 2010

Who Won The Cold War?

Authored by Thomas F. Berner.
The role of George Kennan's Containment strategy in securing a U.S. victory in the Cold War has been overstated by both the right and the left.
Added June 17, 2010

Endgame for the West in Afghanistan? Explaining the Decline in Support for the War in Afghanistan in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France and Germany

Authored by Charles A. Miller.
Analyses of the War in Afghanistan frequently mention the declining or shaky domestic support for the conflict in the United States and among several U.S. allies. This paper dates the beginning of this decline back to the resurgence of the Taliban in 2005-06 and suggests that the deteriorating course of the war on the ground in Afghanistan itself along with mounting casualties is the key reason behind this drop in domestic support for the war.
Added May 21, 2010

Implications of a Changing NATO

Authored by COL Phillip R. Cuccia.
What is the future of NATO and what should be included in the new NATO Strategic Concept due to come out at the end of 2010? This monograph takes a look at these questions and offers a few recommendations.
Added February 17, 2010

Do Oil Exports Fuel Defense Spending?

Authored by Dr. Clayton K. S. Chun.
Rising oil prices facilitate the acquisition of greater resources and perhaps economic development. But oil revenues can also drive a government to finance massive military equipment purchases like Saudi Arabia did in 1979. The nature of governments that rely on raw material extraction and long-term development of military programs may affect how their current and future spending occurs regardless of oil prices. How nations decide to use their national wealth helps explain some of the perennial problems facing oil and commodity exporting nations and provides insights into their relations with other countries.
Added December 23, 2009

Medvedev's Plan: Giving Russia a Voice but not a Veto in a New European Security System

Authored by Dr. Richard J. Krickus.
The author revisits Medvedev’s proposal and, while some Western analysts deem the conflicting interests and value gap that separate the West from Russia to be overwhelming, others argue that the time has come to engage Russia in seeking a common security agenda in Europe. The most compelling question confronting those who favor a security partnership with Russia is: How to give Russia a voice but not a veto in a new European security system?
Added December 02, 2009

Resetting the Reset Button: Realism About Russia

Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the December 2009 newsletter.
Added September 16, 2009

Russian Elite Image of Iran: From the Late Soviet Era to the Present

Authored by Dr. Dmitry Shlapentokh.
Increasing numbers of Russian intellectuals became disenchanted with the West, particularly after the end of the USSR, and looked for alternative geopolitical alliances. The Muslim world, with Iran at the center, became one of the possible alternatives.
Added September 16, 2009

Alien: How Operational Art Devoured Strategy

Authored by Brigadier Justin Kelly, Dr. Michael James Brennan.
This authors argue that the idea of an operational level of war charged with the planning and conduct of campaigns misconceives the relationship between wars, campaigns, and operations, and is both historically mistaken and wrong in theory. They conclude that its incorporation into U.S. doctrine has had the regrettable impact of separating the conduct of campaigns from the conduct of wars and consequently marginalized the role of politics in the direction of war. In essence, they argue that the idea of the campaign has come to overwhelm that of strategy.
Added September 16, 2009

Escalation and Intrawar Deterrence During Limited Wars in the Middle East

Authored by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill.
This monograph seeks to analyze military escalation and intrawar deterrence by examining two key wars where these concepts became especially relevant—the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. A central conclusion of this monograph is that intrawar deterrence is an inherently fragile concept, and that the nonuse of weapons of mass destruction in both wars was the result of a number of positive factors that may not be repeated in future conflicts.
Added August 27, 2009

Mind-Sets and Missiles: a First Hand Account of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Authored by Mr. Kenneth Michael Absher.
A detailed chronology and analysis of the intelligence failures and successes of the Cuban Missile Crisis is provided.
Added June 25, 2009

2009 Key Strategic Issues List

Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The purpose of the Key Strategic Issues List is to provide military and civilian researchers a ready reference for issues of special interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense.
Added April 22, 2009

New NATO Members: Security Consumers or Producers?

Authored by Colonel Joel R. Hillison.
The issue of burden-sharing in NATO is as relevant today as it was when the alliance was originally founded in 1949. This monograph examines how well new NATO members are contributing to the alliance. Lessons learned apply directly to current burden-sharing debates and provide insights into future burden-sharing opportunities and challenges.
Added March 11, 2009

Russia and Arms Control: Are There Opportunities for the Obama Administration?

Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
As of September 2008, the Bush administration was contemplating not just a break in arms talks but actual sanctions, and allowed the bilateral civil nuclear treaty with Russia to die in the Senate rather than go forward for confirmation. Russian spokesmen make clear their belief that American concessions on key elements of arms control issues like missile defenses in Europe are a touchstone for the relationship and a condition of any further progress towards genuine dialogue.
Added March 04, 2009

Prospects for U.S.-Russian Security Cooperation

Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
The prospects for U.S.-Russian security cooperation lay buried under the wheels of Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August 2008. But ultimately, given Russia's power, standing, and nuclear capability, dialogue and cooperation will be resumed at some point in the future. Therefore, an analysis of the prospects for and conditions favoring such cooperation is an urgent and important task that cries out for clarification precisely because current U.S.-Russian relations are so difficult.
Added December 08, 2008

Russia Challenges the Obama Administration

Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the December 2008 newsletter.
Added August 06, 2008

China-Russia Security Relations: Strategic Parallelism without Partnership or Passion?

Authored by Dr. Richard Weitz.
This report maintains that, although Chinese-Russian relations have improved along several important dimensions, security cooperation between Beijing and Moscow has remained limited, episodic, and tenuous. Nevertheless, U.S. national security planners should prepare for possible major discontinuities in Sino-Russian relations. American officials should pursue a mixture of “shaping and hedging” policies that aim to avert a hostile Chinese-Russian alignment while preparing the United States to better counter one, should it nevertheless arise.
Added July 16, 2008

Key Strategic Issues List, July 2008

Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The Key Strategic Issues List gives researchers, whether military professionals or civilian scholars, a ready reference of those issues of particular interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. Its focus is strategic, rather than operational or tactical. Every year, the KSIL helps guide research efforts to the mutual benefit of the defense community and individual researchers.
Added May 02, 2008

The Second Berlin Wall

Authored by LTC Raymond A. Millen.
Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the May 2008 newsletter.
Added April 14, 2008

The Evolution of U.S. Turkish Relations in a Transatlantic Context

Edited by Dr. Frances G. Burwell.
Since World War II, the relationship between Turkey and the United States has been characterized by periods of remarkable cooperation, even when significant disagreements existed.
Added March 04, 2008

Towards a New Russia Policy

Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
Russia presents an ever greater challenge to American policy and interests. This monograph analyzes the dimensions of Russian threat perception, the mainsprings and goals of contemporary Russian foreign policy, and the requirements for a coherent U.S. strategy to meet that challenge across the entire agenda of Russo-American and East-West relations.
Added December 05, 2007

Russian Security Strategy under Putin: U.S. and Russian Perspectives

Authored by Dr. R. Craig Nation, Mr. Dmitri Trenin.
The theme of the Strategic Studies Institute’s annual strategy conference for 2007 was global security challenges to the United States and proceeded on a region by region basis. These papers were delivered during the session devoted to security challenges issuing from what is now called Eurasia, i.e., to a large degree the former Soviet Union.
Added November 14, 2007

The Evolution of U.S.-Turkish Relations in a Transatlantic Context

Authored by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill.
The Conference’s opening address, entitled, “Turkey’s Future Course: a European Perspective,” was presented by a German legislator with a special interest in European-Turkish relations. The speaker stated that the future of Turkey is both an external and internal issue for Europe. She asserted that the future of Europe depends on the integration of Turkey into Europe and expressed concern that Turkey was not invited to the March 2007 “Fifty Years of Europe” celebration commemorating the moves toward European unity following the Treaties of Rome. This snub sent the wrong message to the Turks.
Added November 05, 2007

The Eastern Dimension of America's New European Allies

Authored by Mr. Janusz Bugajski.
Without a realistic prospect for NATO and EU accession, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Georgia will become sources of domestic and regional instability and objects of Russia’s neo-imperialist ambitions that will undermine American and European strategic interests.
Added July 18, 2007

2007 Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL)

Edited by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.
The Key Strategic Issues List gives researchers, whether military professionals or civilian scholars, a ready reference of those issues of particular interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. Its focus is strategic, rather than operational or tactical. Every year, the KSIL helps guide research efforts to the mutual benefit of the defense community and individual researchers.
Added July 02, 2007

Political Trends in the New Eastern Europe: Ukraine and Belarus

Authored by Dr. Arkady Moshes, Dr. Vitali Silitski.
In both cases, the interplay of domestic and foreign factors of security is critical to any grasp of the issues in Belarus and Ukraine and thus to sound policy analysis and policymaking in regard to them. This interplay is one of the defining features of the international security agenda that the U.S. Army and the U.S. Government grapple with on a daily basis.
Added June 11, 2007

Ukraine's Military Between East and West

Authored by Professor Marybeth Peterson Ulrich.
This fresh look at Ukraine’s movement toward the West since the Orange Revolution examines the progress and limitations of reforming its armed forces. The monograph applies defense reform roadmaps developed in the postcommunist Central European cases in order to suggest a framework to maximize the likelihood of success in Ukraine.
Added May 07, 2007

Russian-American Security Cooperation after St. Petersburg

Authored by Dr. Richard Weitz.
Considerable progress has been achieved during President Putin’s tenure in the areas of Russian-American security cooperation. The author assesses opportunities for further security cooperation between Russia and the United States, offering detailed policy suggestions in certain areas.