Perspective is essential in understanding causes of war — and roads to peace. Strategic Demands strives in our work to see security, and mutual security, with a realistic perspective. Here, Anatol Lieven, brings a “Responsible Statecraft” perspective…
Category: Russian Federation
Nuclear Drills Today

The Russia-Ukraine Crisis… February 19, 2022… ‘Ratcheting Up’, tactical nukes in the field… Nuclear ‘Drills’ as Russian Forces Run ‘Firing Exercises’
Nations Pledge to Avoid Nuclear War

The U.S. offers up a five-nation ‘Statement on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races‘ … At the same time, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting of nations has been delayed – again.
Biden, Putin Meet and Talk of Nuclear Arms Control
The two leaders issued a joint statement following their first meeting stating that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” The U.S. and Russian Federation committed to “an integrated bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue in the near future” as a “groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures”
New President, New START Agreement

‘Scoop’ / News now being received … an extension of the New START treaty is imminent. If so, this would be a smart move toward a nuclear weapons control architecture. Hopefully, the New START step forward comes to pass and sets the stage for agreements to follow …
U.S. China ‘Spats’ Rattle the World

(Associated Press – July 28, 2020) — Antagonisms between the United States and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of “Cold War 2.0”
Putin Positioning to be President for Life

Student climate strike in Moscow

A beginning. Margarita Naumenko. As with Greta Thunberg in Sweden, one student, a ripple, can become a wave … (New Russian climate law revised after industry intervention. Draft bill loses legal targets and support for low carbon projects. ‘Trump effect’ threatens Paris climate accord, sets back international security agreements)
21st Century “Great Game”

Recently StratDem visited the geopolitics of Pepe Escobar. This week StratDem is expanding on geometric politics, a 21st Century Great Game — strategic demands, Eurasia, eco-security, climate, an ominous nuclear arms race w/ hypersonic weapons. The ‘Unipolar’ moment is over
Count the Wars-in-the-Making

If decades of disastrous wars in the Mid/Near East aren’t enough for you… if U.S. forces based across the globe aren’t enough… if a Triad of 24/7/365 hair-trigger alert nuclear weapons aren’t enough, if the collapse of weapons control agreements and treaties aren’t enough then how about a Big Show on the 4th of July? […]
New War Plans, New Weapons Systems

Not a walk in the park. Defense One; Foreign Affairs; TomDispatch. A taste of things to come as war plans shift to visions of full-spectrum conflict, strategic and tactical, cyber war, space war, AI war… China, Russia, the U.S. in a 21st century geo-political Great Game, all-too-real moves with new war systems, new nukes…
Back to the Brink, Nuclear Catastrophe

As nuclear treaty after nuclear treaty bites the dust, today, February 1st, 2019, the U.S. announces its intent to withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. Nuclear arms control is immeasurably damaged. A new nuclear arms race is heralded, a global breakout characterized by many as “insanity”.
Tweet-of-the-Day — Exxon’s Tillerson, Trump’s POV

December 7, 2018 3:50 EST … Donald Trump, Rex Tillerson — Consider U.S. denial of climate change, oil / gas exploration, risks and reality. Recall that in 2011, Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon Mobil, completed an unprecedented oil / gas Arctic development deal with Russia’s Rosneft (see GreenPolicy360 / Arctic for details).
Strategic Demands, Energy Futures

Energy Priorities, Geo-politics & Fracking in the US. As OPEC’s latest meeting concludes, let’s take a snapshot of worldwide oil/gas. The US has gone to the top of the heap and is exerting its muscle as the US president pleads for lower energy prices. Next chess move is from China-Russia with their Eurasia strategy
May 8th, 2018

The lies of the Iraq war and subsequent disaster now shift toward an Iran disaster. After listening this past week to Israel’s PM present his country’s official POV regarding Iran, although it veered widely from top U.S. security officials public statements and testimony before Congress, the U.S. president has decided
Another War Announcement

In April 2017, at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the U.S. President and Chinese President Xi Jinping sat down to an exquisite dinner in a regal, golden decor setting. As the two heads of state are eating dessert, the U.S. President suddenly announces to China’s president – “We’ve just launched 59 missiles…”
Moyers: Sleepwalking Into a Nuclear Arms Race with Russia

“Sleepwalking Into a Nuclear Arms Race with Russia” Chuck Spinney and Pierre Sprey write for Moyers’ online (and Spinney’s Blaster blog) with a warning about a new nuclear arms race, one where ‘the nuclear issue boils down to a question of understanding how America’s spending decisions and actions impact patriotic Russians’