H-Diplo | Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Conference Report on “The Failure of the Post-Cold War Global Order?” 31 May–3 June 2023, in Mainz Organizers: Andreas Rödder, chair for Modern and Contemporary History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Helmut Schmidt Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global…
Tag: Russia/Soviet Union
H-Diplo|RJISSF Policy Roundtable III-3: Ukraine and Nuclear Weapons
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Ukraine’s remarkable resistance to Russian aggression have triggered reams of analysis.[1] Perhaps no aspect of the war in Ukraine has sparked more discussion—particularly among American observers and analysts—than the nuclear dimension of the conflict and the extent to which Russian and American nuclear weapons are affecting…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Review Essay 82: James on Goldgeier & Shifrinson, eds., Evaluating NATO Enlargement
This interesting and important collections of essays on the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its consequences appeared at a historic moment, in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale attack of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.[1] It is a development—and to some extent an adjustment—of the papers that were published as a…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Commentary: “From Disengagement to Unprecedented Engagement: the US, the War in Gaza and the New World Order”
Is it just a coincidence that at the same time as President Joe Biden’s wartime visit to Israel, the Chinese and Russian leaders met in Beijing in the framework of the Belt and Road Conference? While the timing might be a coincidence, the contrast between the two events indicates some of the links between the…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable on Zubok Collapse
Vladislav Zubok was a witness to the end of the Soviet Union, and with this impressive book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, he has become one of, if not the, leading historians of its downfall. His distinguished academic career began at Moscow State University and the prestigious Institute for the USA and Canada…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable 14-26 on Sarotte, Not One Inch
Not One Inch, Mary E. Sarotte’s excellent study of the origins of the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could not be timelier. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine brings to a head the debate over NATO enlargement that has been roiling since the end of the Cold War.
H-Diplo|RJISSF Policy Roundtable II-4: NATO’s Northern Enlargement: How Did It Happen, Where Will It Lead?
Since Russia launched its threat diplomacy towards Ukraine and the West, most clearly in December 2021 with the presentation of an ultimatum in the form of “draft agreements” between Russia on the one hand and NATO and the United States respectively on the other, this author was far from the only one to have predicted…
H-Diplo|ISSF Commentary “Fear and the Logic of Othering: Decoding the Biden Administration’s 2022 National Security Strategy”
As result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration delayed the release of the new National Security Strategy (NSS) until October 2022.[1] At first glance, it is impossible to avoid noting that the entire NSS—which analysts have described as a disappointing document and “a laundry list of challenges, threats, and responses”[2] —revolves around…
Policy Series 2021-60: Trump and Russia—Less than Meets the Eye
After all the controversy, accusations, angry tweets, impeachment hearings, and conspiracy theories, how is the Trump administration’s Russia policy to be assessed? Russia consumed an unprecedented amount of domestic energy during Trump’s presidency, casting a shadow over the White House during the four years Trump lived there. And yet there has been scant systematic analysis…
Policy Series 2021-30: The Biden Administration and Russia: Digging Out of a Deep Hole
After President Donald Trump’s four years in office the U.S.-Russian relationship ended where it began: hostile, recriminatory, unproductive, and disengaged. Thus, the Biden administration starts from where roughly the Obama administration left off, only the hole is deeper, because Russia’s cyber intrusions have added a paralyzing dimension to the mix of problems. But where precisely…