CIAO DATE: 04/07

The Washington Quarterly

Spring 2007: Volume 30, Number 2

Resurgent Russia

• Russia Redefines Itself and Its Relations with the West (PDF, 12 Pages, 124 KB)
  Dmitri Trenin

  From Moscow’s perspective, Russian-Western relations are competitive but not antagonistic. Russia does not crave world domination, and its leaders do not dream of restoring the Soviet Union, but they do plan to rebuild Russia as a great power with global reach, organized as a supercorporation.

• Russian Transimperialism and Its Implications (PDF, 16 Pages, 181 KB)
  Celeste A. Wallander

  A fruitless debate has emerged over whether Russia is a postimperial power that seeks global cooperation or a neoimperial one that seeks to control weaker countries. Russian strategy is shaped by modern, or transnational, and imperialist causes. In other words, it is a new, transimperialist power requiring new strategies.

• Russia and the West: Taking the Longer View (PDF, 14 Pages, 160 KB)
  Jeffrey Mankoff

  Although relations with Russia are in a difficult phase, Moscow’s behavior in 2006 has been consistent with the strategy pursued by the Kremlin for the past decade: not challenging Western influence but proving that Moscow still matters internationally.

• Germany and Russia: A Special Relationship (PDF, 10 Pages, 110 KB)
  Alexander Rahr

  German elites enjoy their role as an advocate of European interests with Russia and often as mediator between Moscow and Washington but are struggling to balance promoting business ties, engaging Russia on liberal reform, and fostering the growth of the post-Soviet states.

• France’s Russia Policy: Balancing Interests and Values (PDF, 10 Pages, 138 KB)
  Thomas Gomart

  France should move away from talk of a “special relationship”with the Kremlin, which has failed to produce any tangible results, and begin to link its bilateral relationship to the broader EU-Russian dialogue. Simply put, Paris should begin to see Russia not as a European country, but a Eurasian one.

Provocations

• When $10 Billion Is Not Enough: Rethinking U.S. Strategy toward Pakistan (PDF, 14 Pages, 194 KB)
  Craig Cohen and Derek Chollet

  U.S. engagement with Pakistan is highly militarized and centralized, with very little reaching the vast majority of Pakistanis. U.S. assistance does not reflect a coherent strategy, but a legacy of the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks and a familiar menu of what Washington was already organized to provide.

• Deterring a Nuclear 9/11 (PDF, 14 Pages, 179 KB)
  Caitlin Talmadge

  Can a nuclear terrorist attack be deterred? Nuclear forensic techniques to identify the origins of nuclear materials are improving, but significant associated strategic, political, diplomatic, and organizational challenges have yet to be sufficiently addressed.

• Hizballah and Syria: Outgrowing the Proxy Relationship (PDF, 18 Pages, 211 KB)
  Emile El-Hokayem

  Syria and Hizballah are intertwined, but addressing the challenges they pose requires differentiated approaches. Hoping that Syria is the key to Hizballah ignores the reality that, although Syria retains some influence, Hizballah has gained leverage over and independence from its former patron.

• Enhancing U.S. Engagement with North Korea (PDF, 18 Pages, 201 KB)
  Joel S. Wit

  Although the domestic politics of engaging Pyongyang will be complicated, a possibility exists for securing bipartisan support that has never been present before. A policy of enhanced engagement, based on these six elements, holds the best chance for resolving the crisis and securing U.S. interests.

• How to Deal with South Korea (PDF, 12 Pages, 152 KB)
  Sunhyuk Kim and Wonhyuk Lim

  A combination of South Korean economic development over time, the rise of a new generation in South Korean politics, and changing inter-Korean relations help explain a Seoul that has become more fundamentally independent than anti-American or pro-Chinese.

• In Pursuit of Security and Prosperity: Technology Controls for a New Era (PDF, 8 Pages, 98 KB)
  Mark Foulon and Christopher A. Padilla

  To maximize economic benefit and national security in a complex global environment, two senior U.S. Department of Commerce officials propose a framework to begin to define a new system of technology controls that would enjoy broad support among the executive branch, Congress, and industry.

Washington Watch

• Let the 2008 Games Begin (PDF, 9 Pages, 77 KB)
  Charles E. Cook Jr.

  The outlook for the 2008 presidential nomination fights remains a mixture of the almost certain and the totally unknown. The end result is very likely to turn on circumstances that one has no way of anticipating today, but you can count on one thing: it is going to be close.