Europe & Russia

The Eastern Dimension of America's New European Allies Mr Janusz Bugajski Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph provides a set of recommendations to the United States, NATO allies, and EU institutions in promoting a more consequential Eastern Dimension. Above all, the U.S. administration needs to clearly make the argument that progress toward stable states and secure democracies in a widening Europe and an expanding trans-Atlantic community that encompasses the Black Sea zone is in America’s national interests and serves its strategic goals. The eventual inclusion of all East European states that are currently situated outside NATO and the creation of a wider Alliance would help expand and consolidate democratic systems, open up new markets, stabilize Washington’s new allies, and increase the number of potential U.S. partners."

The Reserve Policies of Nations: A Comparative Analysis Dr Richard Weitz Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "While the American defense community has naturally been preoccupied with the extensive transformation of the U.S. reserve components in recent years, equally critical developments in the reserve policies of the world’s other major military powers have received less attention. The inevitability of continued American engagement with these countries means that their changing policies are highly relevant to the United States. American defense planners should therefore keep abreast of ongoing alterations in these countries’ reserve components and, in certain cases, might wish to adjust their own forces and policies in response."

Can Tony Blair Make a Difference in the Middle East? Dr W Andrew Terrill Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "As the entire world now knows, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided not to slip into comfortable retirement. Instead, after 10 years of service as the leader of the United Kingdom, he has sought out one the world’s most thankless jobs at one of the worst possible times to accept it. He has arranged to be appointed special envoy of the Middle East Peace Quartet. The Quartet includes the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, and the United States..."

Political Trends in the New Eastern Europe: Ukraine and Belarus Dr Arkady Moshes, Dr Vitali Silitski Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "These two papers, presented at the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI)-Ellison Center conference on Russia in 2006, open the way to this kind of informed understanding of important issues in European security and enable readers to begin to make sense of the complex issues involved in each country. 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, U.S. Government, and to a lesser degree, SSI grapple with on a daily basis and which SSI seeks to present to its audiences."

Ukraine's Military Between East and West Prof Marybeth Peterson Ulrich Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "America’s new allies in Central and Eastern Europe have been struggling with defense reform since the end of the Cold War. Only recently, since the Orange Revolution, has Ukraine’s national political and military leadership seriously engaged the process of radical and comprehensive defense reform. Dr. Marybeth Ulrich applies the various roadmaps for reform developed in the post-communist states of Central European states to the emerging Ukrainian case. She draws upon this mixed picture to suggest a framework focused on key areas in need of reform, as well as key conditions that will facilitate the achievement of reform objectives. The result is a richly developed case study revealing Ukraine’s main strengths as well as obstacles limiting the improvement of its military capabilities."

From Munich to Munich Dr Stephen J Blank Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In Munich in 1938, the West abandoned Central and Eastern Europe to the dictators. On February 10, 2007, Vladimir Putin demanded that it do so again. In his confrontational speech to the annual Wehrkunde conference in Munich, Putin blasted U.S. policy, blaming American unilateralism for provoking a new arms race, destabilizing the Middle East, undermining international institutions, distorting the purpose of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and supporting democratic revolutions in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)..."

North Korean Foreign Relations in the Post-Cold War World Dr Samuel S Kim Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In this monograph, Dr. Samuel Kim examines North Korea’s foreign relations with China, Russia, Japan, the United States, and South Korea during the post-Cold War era. He argues that central to understanding North Korea’s international behavior in the 21st century is the extent to which the policies of the United States have shaped that behavior. Although some readers may not agree with all of Dr. Kim’s interpretations and assessments, they nevertheless will find his analysis simulating and extremely informative."

Russian-American Security Cooperation after St. Petersburg Dr Richard Weitz Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph assesses the opportunities for further security cooperation between Russia and the United States. It argues that, until a change of government occurs in both countries in 2008, the prospects for additional bilateral agreements to reduce strategic nuclear weapons, limit destabilizing military operations, jointly develop ballistic missile defenses, and enhance transparency regarding tactical nuclear weapons are unlikely. Near-term opportunities for collaboration in the areas of cooperative threat reduction, third-party proliferation, and bilateral military engagement appear greater. Accordingly, this monograph offers some suggestions for accelerating progress in these areas."

U.S. Interests in Central Asia and the Challenges to Them Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "For the United States, Central Asia is a region of both growing importance and of growing challenge. Its proximity to Russia, China, Iran, India, and Pakistan;, location as the center of the Global War on Terrorism; and its large energy holdings make it a strategic region where the United States has important, some might even say vital, interests. Those interests pertain, first of all, to geostrategic realities of security, particularly in the war on terrorism. But they also pertain to energy and to the effort to support liberalizing and democratizing reforms."