Analysis

This listing contains all the analytical materials posted on the Russia Matters website. These include: RM Exclusives, commissioned by Russia Matters exclusively for this website; Recommended Reads, deemed particularly noteworthy by our editorial team; Partner Posts, originally published by our partners elsewhere; and Future Policy Leaders, pieces by promising young scholars and policy thinkers. Content can be filtered by genre and subject-specific criteria and is updated often. Gradually we will be adding older Recommended Reads and Partner Posts dating back as far as 2011.
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When Allies Go Nuclear: How to Prevent the Next Proliferation Threat

Chuck Hagel, Malcolm Rifkind, Kevin Rudd and Ivo Daalder February 12, 2021 Recommended Reads
The United States faces a new nucler proliferation threat, this time from its own allies.
Competing Views on Russia

Victoria Nuland on Russia

Daniel Shapiro February 03, 2021 RM Exclusives
Biden's pick for undersecretary of state for political affairs has held a number of positions related to the post-Soviet space. Check out our compilation for some of Nuland's observations and policy ideas regarding Russia and the U.S.-Russian relationship.
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The State Department’s Compliance Report Plays the Blame Game, Despite Offering Little Evidence

Matt Korda and Hans M. Kristensen June 24, 2020 Recommended Reads
The report’s publication comes at a critical time, as the Trump administration has spent the past few years—and the past three months in particular—dismantling the last vestiges of U.S. commitments to the international arms control regime.
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NATO Expansion and the Great Unraveling of Arms Control

Michael Krepon February 03, 2020 Recommended Reads
The seeds that led to the Great Unraveling of conventional and nuclear arms control were planted during the first Clinton administration—it just wasn’t apparent at the time. 
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A New Era of Arms Control: Myths, Realities and Options

Alexey Arbatov October 24, 2019 Recommended Reads
Only the continuation of nuclear arms control can create the political and military conditions for eventual limitations of innovative weapons systems and technologies, as well as for a carefully thought through and phased shift to a multilateral format of nuclear disarmament.
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Turkey and Russia: A Remarkable Rapprochement

Michael A. Reynolds October 24, 2019 Recommended Reads
Turkey's purchase of the S-400 and the broader turn to Russia cannot be ascribed primarily to Erdogan’s supposed erraticism, still less to his Islamist orientation or any ideology aside from mainstream Turkish nationalism.
Competing Views on Russia

John Mearsheimer on Russia: Insights and Recommendations

Thomas Schaffner September 26, 2019 RM Exclusives
When Americans find their domestic politics the target of foreign interference, "they become deeply committed to the principle of self-determination." Not surprisingly, writes leading American international relations scholar John Mearsheimer, "so do the Russians."
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How to Enlarge NATO: The Debate Inside the Clinton Administration, 1993–95

Mary Elise Sarotte July 29, 2019 Recommended Reads
Pleas from Central and Eastern European leaders, missteps by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and victory by the pro-expansion Republican Party in the 1994 U.S. congressional election all helped advocates of full-membership enlargement to win.
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Trump Aside, What's the U.S. Role in NATO?

Barry Posen March 10, 2019 Recommended Reads
Trump's movement away from NATO is easily dismissed as poor foreign policy, given his history of bad ideas. This is not the case, as modern NATO takes more than it gives when it comes to strengthening American national security.
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The INF Treaty Crisis: Filling the Void With European Leadership

Nikolai Sokov March 01, 2019 Recommended Reads
The end of the INF Treaty and wavering on New START show just how much the U.S.-Russian arms control relationship has deteriorated. Europe can step in as mediator to renew effort in nonproliferation, but it must act quickly and develop the political will to move outside of its traditional place on the margins.
book review

‘No Place for Russia’: How Much Are Old US Ambitions in Europe to Blame for Russia-West Tensions Today?

Joshua Shifrinson January 03, 2019 RM Exclusives
In the 1990s, preserving NATO and, with it, U.S. preeminence in Europe became the sine qua non of U.S. European policy. Is this why Russia was left out of Europe’s post-Cold War security structure?
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Why the Arms Race Is Still White Hot Decades After the Cold War Ended—and How to Stop It

Jonathan Hunt November 02, 2018 Recommended Reads
Did the Cold War arms race actually end, or have we merely sat through a 30-year intermission?
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