What We Get Wrong About Russia
Every US President since the collapse of the Soviet Union has come into office believing he can fix the US-Russia relationship and all have failed. There is a simple reason for this: the US-Russia relationship is driven far less by the identities of the two presidents, and far more by longer-term, historical-structural factors, than most US leaders understand. Put simply, the US and Russia have fundamentally different models of how the world works. If this remains to be the case, Russia will continue to be a problem for the US – if not an outright threat – and the US will be the same for Russia.
Rethinking US Military Aid to Georgia or How to Stop Rewarding Democratic Backsliding
Built with years of American funding, training, and strategic engagement, the Georgian Defense Forces (GDF) were once considered a showcase of successful post-Soviet military reform. That legacy is now in jeopardy. While Washington debates democratic standards, it risks overlooking the quiet erosion of a key US security investment.
Sino-Russian Relations: Unlimited Partnership or Hierarchical Friendship?
In recent years, Russia and China have cultivated the image of a powerful anti-Western relationship. They have repeatedly emphasized their “No Limits” partnership and common opposition to what they describe as Western hegemony. Nevertheless, beneath the surface of the diplomatic pleasantries, joint military exercises, and staged leadership summits lie deep incompatibilities and increasingly widening contradictions in several domains- territorial, geopolitical, economic, technological, and military. These historical fractures and grievances challenge the sustainability of their alliance while revealing their underlying rivalry.
A Long and Winding Road to Nowhere? Georgia’s Perennial Quest for Security and Belonging
As a small country in an unstable but strategically important region, finding sustainable security and a geopolitical “home” was always going to be a challenge for Georgia. The location of the South Caucasus at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East meant that external powers have long vied for influence there, often stoking conflict among regional states. In Georgia’s case, its search for security was further complicated by internal divisions in Georgian society, which often made the country easy pickings for larger neighbors with predatory designs.
Nothing Happens Until Something Moves: Infrastructure Development Priorities on NATO’s Eastern Flank
Over the past decade, NATO’s containment line has steadily shifted eastward, stretching from the Baltic Sea in the north through the Black Sea region and into the Eastern Mediterranean. This repositioning started in 2008, when the Black Sea began to be a conflictual area: Russia invaded Georgia that year, and in 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and then went into a full war with Ukraine beginning in 2022. These events underscored the growing volatility on NATO’s eastern periphery and exposed critical weaknesses in regional infrastructure that continue to hinder military integration and rapid reinforcement.
Russia’s Western Aggression Pathways: Baltic or Danube Corridor?
The brief assesses Russia’s strategic options for continued westward aggression, concluding that the Danube Mouth axis represents the most rewarding, probable, and operationally realistic path. Since 2022, the US has strengthened its security posture in Romania, recognizing the region's strategic vulnerability, while the EU maintains its conflict-averse posture, emphasizing negotiation over deterrence.
Two Wars, Countless Consequences
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel were brutal and unprovoked acts of aggression. Both Ukraine and Israel fought back hard, and the US rightly backed both Kyiv and Tel Aviv with diplomatic, economic, and most importantly military support. But as the wars unfolded a divergence in their trajectories became apparent, as did a divergence in the US approach to them. Put bluntly, US policy toward the wars in Europe and the Middle East could make war crimes and nuclear blackmail more common, to the detriment of US national security and global stability.