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.
article

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: 6 Timeless Lessons for Arms Control

Graham Allison October 01, 2022 Recommended Reads
Key lessons from the crisis have been adapted and applied by the successors of Kennedy and Khrushchev to inform fateful choices.
Clues from Russian Views

Bring Back the Fear

Fyodor Lukyanov interviews Dmitri Trenin September 26, 2022 Recommended Reads
Russia's "red line" is absent from the American rule book, which the world is based on. Therefore, the only thing that can stop the United States in this situation is fear—its own fear of the next step.
article

The World Putin Wants

Fiona Hill and Angela Stent August 25, 2022 Recommended Reads
Russia’s president ordered his "special military operation" because he believes that it is Russia’s divine right to rule Ukraine, to wipe out the country’s national identity and to integrate its people into a Greater Russia.
article

The Case Against a New Arms Race

Rose Gottemoeller August 09, 2022 Recommended Reads
New defense innovations promise not just to transform warfare but also to undermine the logic and utility of nuclear weapons.
article

Reviving Arms Control, Post-Ukraine: Why New START Still Matters

Stephen J. Cimbala and Lawrence J. Korb July 13, 2022 Recommended Reads
Will the continuing war in Ukraine and resulting toxic relations between Russia and NATO push nuclear arms control into the dustbin of history?
article

Russia-Belarus Nuclear Sharing Would Mirror NATO’s—and Worsen Europe’s Security

Nikolai N. Sokov July 01, 2022 Recommended Reads
Putin’s decision to deploy dual-capable missiles in Belarus raises three obvious questions: Why? Why now? Is the decision reversible?
article

China’s Long Game in Russia: Violating Sanctions? No. Ensuring Russia’s Survival? Yes.

Lizzi C. Lee June 30, 2022 RM Exclusives
A floundering Russia and reinvigorated NATO would cut against China's core security interests by giving Washington a stronger hand in its Thucydidian rivalry with Beijing.
article

The Russia-Ukraine War: A Setback for Arms Control

Steven Pifer May 23, 2022 Recommended Reads
The Kremlin seems intent on achieving a victory on the battlefield, while relations between the West and Russia plummet to new lows. One casualty: U.S.-Russian arms control negotiations.
article

Would Putin’s Russia Really Nuke Ukraine?

Graham Allison April 22, 2022 Recommended Reads
If a nuclear strike killed 10,000 or 20,000 innocent Ukrainians, how would the United States or NATO respond?
interview

Can Sanctions Stop Russia?

Nicholas Mulder March 10, 2022 Recommended Reads
Punitive measures that inflict damage on entire populations and their economic life are morally fraught.
article

Taiwan Is Not Ukraine: Stop Linking Their Fates Together

Kharis Templeman January 27, 2022 Recommended Reads
In the current geopolitical moment, the differences between Ukraine and Taiwan are far more important than their similarities—and linking together the security threats that the two countries face can make both situations worse.
article

Russia, the United States and the Counterrevolutionaries: A Trilateral Chess Match in the Middle East

Jon Hoffman July 21, 2021 RM Exclusives
Russia's return to the Middle East must be assessed from the perspective of regional actors, namely how they seek to use competition between Moscow and Washington for their own strategic benefit, our latest exclusive argues.
Refine & Filter

By Section

By Topic

By Country

By Regions

By Groups

By Genre