NEWSWATCH: “Averting the U.S.-Russia Warpath; Even as U.S.-Russian tensions have risen, fundamental shifts in the military-technological environment threaten to erode strategic stability between the two nations.” – The National Interest/ James N. Miller, Richard Fontaine, Alexander Velez-Green

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

“For nearly twenty years following the end of the Cold War, military confrontation between the United States and the Russian Federation seemed implausible. … Before the first decade of the new century had passed, however, Russian officials were accusing the United States of working to isolate Russia. Such apprehensions have mounted steadily in Russia …. Russian behavior, including interventions in Ukraine and Syria, military posturing and harassment in Europe, and interference in Western elections, has led many in the United States to conclude that, while a U.S.-Russian conflict is by no means inevitable, the risk of such a confrontation is growing. … fundamental shifts in the military-technological environment threaten to erode strategic stability … both sides’ extensive dependence on information technology, coupled with likely perceptions of lower risk for the use of ‘nonkinetic’ and nonlethal attacks, are creating new incentives to use cyber and/or counterspace weapons early …. [and] the advent of novel cyber, counterspace, precision-strike, missile-defense and autonomous military systems could cause one or both nations to lose confidence in their nuclear second-strike capabilities – thereby eroding the stability afforded by mutually assured destruction. Washington and Moscow hold divergent … views of the international security environment. … * * * U.S.-Russian relations in the coming years will take one of three forms: strategic rapprochement, intensified military competition or managed competition.  … The United States and Russia have reentered a period of serious tension that shows no sign of abating. …”

Click here for: “Averting the U.S.-Russia Warpath; Even as U.S.-Russian tensions have risen, fundamental shifts in the military-technological environment threaten to erode strategic stability between the two nations.” – The National Interest/ James N. Miller, Richard Fontaine, Alexander Velez-Green

 

Comment