Great op-ed by Bret Stephens in The New York Times: Walter Lippmann, nobody’s idea of a right-wing reactionary, put his finger on the problem in the tragic wake of another supposedly golden era of arms control. “The disarmament movement,” he wrote in 1943, proved “tragically successful in disarming the nations that believed in disarmament.” In […]
Military strategy and politics
Zapad was not a test for the West
Igor Fedyk tries to derive some conclusions about the just finished Zapad 2017 exercise in this piece called Zapad 2017: A Test for the West for Jamestown.org. I think some of his points are somewhat sensationalistic, though, and Fedyk partly falls into the trap of confusing the nature of warfare with sinister intentions on behalf […]
What are Russian leaders afraid of?
Not entirely new but very thorough description of how the Russian leadership perceives the strategic role and threats against Russia by Dmitry Gorenburg for Russia in Global Affairs. Fundamentally Gorenburg describes an interesting combination of aggressive behavior grounded in a perception of a defensive struggle that from a Western perspective can be hard to understand. […]
Europe should prepare to defend itself without America
Europe desires a fundamentally disinterested protector, but the European countries better realize that America’s unwillingness to provide that security will continue to grow, writes Jeremy Shapiro in this insightful piece in [War On The Rocks] [WTHR link]: But presidential incompetence and the public’s lack of interest is a weak foundation on which to build a […]
Pessimistic farewell by outgoing EU ambassador to Russia
Outgoing EU ambassador to Russia, the Lithuanian diplomat Vygaudas Ušackas, has a pessimistic farewell message in The Guardian: When I arrived in Moscow as the EU’s ambassador to Russia four years ago, relations between the two blocs were strained but functional. Within months, though, Russia would annex Crimea and intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine, plunging […]
Russia destroys its last chemical weapons
Russia has destroyed the last chemical weapons from its arsenal. The occasion was announced by Putin personally, and the president was not slow to point out that Russia beat USA in reaching the milestone. That reports postimees.ee (in Estonian). In fact both Russia and USA have failed to meet the 2012 deadline for the destruction […]
Zapad perhaps smaller than expected
Mathieu Boulègue for Chatham House: Western commentators were obsessed with the numbers of Russian troops being mobilized during the course of exercise and stuck firmly to the “100,000 servicemen” narrative. But Russia proved them wrong by keeping the drills small, managed, and contained. The real numbers are still unconfirmed, but the actual number of troops […]
Russia’s strategic transformation in the light of Zapad
Thoughtful points about the strategic transformation that Russia’s military is going through in this article by BBC in the wake of Zapad 2017: It is interesting that while much of the Western media discussion of [precision-guided munitions] rests upon their use as air-launched weapons in bombing campaigns, intended to increase accuracy and reduce the level […]
NATO needs exercises like Zapad
John R. Deni for Carnegie Europe: One area where the West has struggled though is in mounting the kind of capability display similar to Zapad 2017. That is, deploying large-scale combat power from across the continent and across the Atlantic for the purposes of conducting corps-level training, maneuvers, and live fire, all to achieve tactical, […]
Poland increases defense spending
Poland is increasing defense spending, according to Digital Journal: Poland on Friday hiked defence spending above the 2 percent of GDP target set by NATO which few member states have so far have met. The parliament, in which the rightwing government has a majority, endorsed plans by Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz to raise the budget […]