As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, we give thanks to Stephen Cohen for not only his work in the REEES field but for the generosity he, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and the Kat Foundation have shown to budding Russia scholars. We honor him today by publishing the testimonials of some of current and former students who have benefitted from Cohen Fellowships.
ACEWA Will Return Monday, November 30.
James W. Carden: What’ll Biden do about Russia?
Yet there is one, and perhaps only one, bright spot: how Biden might manage arms control. Trump’s record is an abomination in this area: The INF and Open Skies treaties are both high-profile casualties of his administration’s careless disregard for American national security. Biden has a chance to fix this.
Pietro Shakarian: Moscow’s End Game in Artsakh-Karabakh
On 9 November, at emergency negotiations, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a peace statement that ended the war over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) that had raged since 27 September.
VIDEO: Saagar Enjeti explains why Joe Biden’s future cabinet is the “most Washington” team of all time.
Biden’s cabinet marks the return of The Blob.
Curt Mills: Tony Blinken Shows Biden’s Premium On Loyalty
Antony Blinken, a veteran Washington foreign policy hand and longtime consigliere to the president-elect, will be nominated secretary of State this week, most major media are reporting.
Robert Wright and Conor Echols: Grading candidates for Biden’s foreign policy team: William Burns
Burns, a career diplomat who has served as ambassador to Russia and as deputy secretary of state, gets particularly high marks for cognitive empathy – understanding the perspectives and motivations of international actors.
The Hill: Trump administration pulls out of Open Skies Treaty with Russia
The Trump administration has officially withdrawn from the Open Skies Treaty, six months after starting the process to leave.
Amber Atheny: Is a populist right-progressive left anti-war alliance still possible?
Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller announced Tuesday that the U.S. is pulling 2,500 American troops from Afghanistan and hundreds from Iraq and Somalia — a move that is in line with President Trump’s campaign promise to put “America first” and end “forever wars.” It is also a signal that a left-right alliance backing elements of his agenda is not only still possible, but critical as Joe Biden replaces him in the White House.
Dimitri Simes Jr: For Russia, Biden’s rise strengthens China’s gravitational pull
In the early days of the Barack Obama administration, then-Vice President Joe Biden briefly advocated for “pressing the reset button” in U.S. relations with Russia. Biden’s upcoming presidency, however, looks more likely to push Russia into a closer relationship with China.
Subrata Ghoshroy: Why does missile defense still enjoy bipartisan support in Congress?
The program to develop a missile defense system to protect the United States mainland has existed in one form or another for nearly six decades. Though it was controversial from the beginning and faced nearly unsurmountable technical challenges, it has enjoyed bipartisan support and continued funding in Congress for more than 20 years.
Zack Brown: Why America Should Bring Home Its Nuclear Weapons
Why American nuclear weapons in Europe no longer make sense.
Paul Robinson: Inside the Imagination of The Atlantic Council’s Diane Francis
I’m guessing that national newspapers have largely given up fact-checking their authors, writes Paul Robinson.
Gordon Hahn: The Russia-West Tinderbox
The potential for a military conflict between Russia and NATO continues to grow as Russo-Western contention over spheres of influence in the historically war-torn region of Eastern Europe-Western Eurasia, what some call or hope to institute as the ‘Intermarium’ between the Black Sea in the south and the White or Baltic Sea in the north, continues to move towards resolution.
Ed Lozansky: What to expect in U.S.-Russia relations after Jan. 20, 2021
It is an undeniable fact that presently America is experiencing serious challenges on both domestic and foreign fronts. The dramatic polarization of society, the largest number of pandemic victims and major disputes between the nuclear powers require strong leadership and social unity.
France 24: ‘Back at the head of the table’: A look at Biden’s foreign policy agenda
Observers note that Washington has not been complacent with Moscow in the intervening years, imposing sanctions on Russia during Trump’s term in office even as the man behind the desk in the Oval Office seemed keen to look the other way. But under Biden, the mixed message of friendliness to Vladimir Putin conveyed by Trump – who declined to address such affronts as the bounties Moscow allegedly put on the heads of US troops in Afghanistan – will likely be a thing of the past.
VIDEO: Moderate Rebels: Anti-war US Army veteran warns of hawks in Biden transition team
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team is full of war hawks and weapons industry shills. Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with US Army veteran Danny Sjursen, who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming an anti-imperialist activist and journalist, about what a Biden-Harris administration foreign policy would look like.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: How Biden can make Russia’s nuclear policy nonprofits great again
Today, the Russian nonproliferation NGO community and its Western partners have failed in their mission as it was defined back in the 1990s.
Daniel Larison: The Bankruptcy Of ‘Bipartisan Foreign Policy’
A potential Biden Secretary of State lays out his case for a failed orthodoxy…
Lyle J. Goldstein: Washington should chill out over Russia’s Arctic ambitions
One day before the U.S. election, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the commissioning of a new diesel-electric icebreaker ship, the Viktor Chernomyrdin, which is the most powerful non-nuclear icebreaker in the world. Just two weeks prior, another ceremony announced the entry into service of an even larger and more formidable icebreaker, appropriately named Arktika.