Pathways to Russian Escalation Against NATO from the Ukraine War

Pathways to Russian Escalation Against NATO from the Ukraine War PDF Author: Bryan A. Frederick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The potential for Russia to decide to escalate the ongoing war in Ukraine by attacking a U.S. or allied target is a significant concern. This Perspective summarizes the most-plausible pathways that could lead to a Russian decision to target NATO member states during the current conflict, describes the conditions under which Moscow might undertake such actions, and lays out how U.S. and NATO actions-including ongoing military assistance to Ukraine-could affect each pathway's likelihood. The authors conclude with a set of key considerations for U.S. policymakers to help them manage escalation risks while continuing to pursue U.S. objectives in the context of the war in Ukraine. Although escalation risks stemming from this war are real and significant, this Perspective helps to bound those concerns; a Russia-NATO war is far from an inevitable outcome of the current conflict. U.S. and allied policymakers should be concerned with specific pathways and potential triggers, but they need not operate under the assumption that every action will entail acute escalation risks.

Pathways to Russian Escalation Against NATO from the Ukraine War

Pathways to Russian Escalation Against NATO from the Ukraine War PDF Author: Bryan A. Frederick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The potential for Russia to decide to escalate the ongoing war in Ukraine by attacking a U.S. or allied target is a significant concern. This Perspective summarizes the most-plausible pathways that could lead to a Russian decision to target NATO member states during the current conflict, describes the conditions under which Moscow might undertake such actions, and lays out how U.S. and NATO actions-including ongoing military assistance to Ukraine-could affect each pathway's likelihood. The authors conclude with a set of key considerations for U.S. policymakers to help them manage escalation risks while continuing to pursue U.S. objectives in the context of the war in Ukraine. Although escalation risks stemming from this war are real and significant, this Perspective helps to bound those concerns; a Russia-NATO war is far from an inevitable outcome of the current conflict. U.S. and allied policymakers should be concerned with specific pathways and potential triggers, but they need not operate under the assumption that every action will entail acute escalation risks.

Pathways to Disaster

Pathways to Disaster PDF Author: Paul van Hooft
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The brief’s main conclusions are concerning: there are an increasing number of pathways that could lead to inadvertent escalation. Russia’s expenditure of dual-capable missile stocks, the shifting balance of power in Europe to the advantage of NATO, and NATO’s enlargement bringing it closer to the Kola Peninsula increases the likelihood that Russia faces “use-it-or-lose-it” choices. The Russian armed forces have been overburdened and one could expect civil-military relations to be disturbed. The Russian military is offensively minded, with the nuclear class developing its own parochial ideology. Russian C3I systems are degraded through sanctions and direct attacks. Finally, Russia has launched attacks on Ukraine, and used dual-capable delivery systems, from the same locations as its nuclear arsenal. As NATO-Europe continues to support Ukraine, we suggest a series of measures to avoid inadvertent escalation. Among others, we stress that caution be taken with NATO’s nuclear and conventional posture, including the placement of conventional missiles within range of threatening Russia’s nuclear capabilities. The authors also argue that positive measures, such as military-to-military contacts, should be maintained.

US/NATO-Russian Strategic Stability and the War in Ukraine

US/NATO-Russian Strategic Stability and the War in Ukraine PDF Author: Mary Chestnut
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arms race
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper analyzes the role of nuclear weapons in Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as the war’s impact on overall US/North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)–Russian strategic stability. Strategic stability refers to the existence of two conditions: (1) crisis stability, where there is no incentive for either country to conduct a first nuclear strike, and (2) arms race stability, where there is no incentive for either country to augment its nuclear arsenal to gain significant advantages over the other’s. The paper uses open-source data to analyze the immediate and longer-terms impacts of the Russo-Ukrainian war on both crisis stability and on arms race stability. Because many of the potential nuclear escalation pathways involve escalation from the use of conventional (non-nuclear) weapons, this paper also necessarily explores the interactions between conventional war and potential nuclear use.

Pathways to Disaster: Russia's War Against Ukraine and the Risks of Inadvertent Nuclear Escalation

Pathways to Disaster: Russia's War Against Ukraine and the Risks of Inadvertent Nuclear Escalation PDF Author: Paul van Hooft
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Preventing the (un)thinkable: Escalation Scenarios and Risk Reduction Measures for Russia and NATO Following the War in Ukraine

Preventing the (un)thinkable: Escalation Scenarios and Risk Reduction Measures for Russia and NATO Following the War in Ukraine PDF Author: Daan Sanders
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The spectre of war with Russia looms large in the imagination of European and American policymakers in 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has reawakened thinking in terms of risks and ‘escalation’. Since both Russia and NATO-states US, UK and France have nuclear arsenals, the nuclear threat has also returned to the forefront. Clearly, Putin’s Russia is engaging in brinkmanship and one-sided escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, and thus the risk of escalation must therefore be taken seriously. Keeping citizens and territory safe is the task of NATO and its member-state governments. At the same time, European and American accommodation and acceptance of Russian aggression and threats are a recipe for further escalation from the Russian side and a problematic international precedent to set. Thus, NATO as a whole, and NATO-states individually, must keep a balanced position: do not cave to unacceptable threats, as accommodation is a recipe for further escalation from the Russian side.

Escalation in the War in Ukraine

Escalation in the War in Ukraine PDF Author: Bryan Frederick
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 1977411665
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
This report evaluates the potential for further escalation in the war in Ukraine, including possible escalation to Russian nuclear use, to better inform U.S. and allied decisions and the public debate.

Mr. Putin REV

Mr. Putin REV PDF Author: Fiona Hill
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 081572618X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Fiona Hill and other U.S. public servants have been recognized as Guardians of the Year in TIME's 2019 Person of the Year issue. From the KGB to the Kremlin: a multidimensional portrait of the man at war with the West. Where do Vladimir Putin's ideas come from? How does he look at the outside world? What does he want, and how far is he willing to go? The great lesson of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was the danger of misreading the statements, actions, and intentions of the adversary. Today, Vladimir Putin has become the greatest challenge to European security and the global world order in decades. Russia's 8,000 nuclear weapons underscore the huge risks of not understanding who Putin is. Featuring five new chapters, this new edition dispels potentially dangerous misconceptions about Putin and offers a clear-eyed look at his objectives. It presents Putin as a reflection of deeply ingrained Russian ways of thinking as well as his unique personal background and experience. Praise for the first edition: “If you want to begin to understand Russia today, read this book.”—Sir John Scarlett, former chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) “For anyone wishing to understand Russia's evolution since the breakup of the Soviet Union and its trajectory since then, the book you hold in your hand is an essential guide.”—John McLaughlin, former deputy director of U.S. Central Intelligence “Of the many biographies of Vladimir Putin that have appeared in recent years, this one is the most useful.”—Foreign Affairs “This is not just another Putin biography. It is a psychological portrait.”—The Financial Times Q: Do you have time to read books? If so, which ones would you recommend? “My goodness, let's see. There's Mr. Putin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Insightful.”—Vice President Joseph Biden in Joe Biden: The Rolling Stone Interview.

On Theories of Victory, Red and Blue

On Theories of Victory, Red and Blue PDF Author: Brad Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781952565014
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
While the United States and its allies put their military focus on the post-9/11 challenges of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, Russia and China put their military focus onto the United States and the risks of regional wars that they came to believe they might have to fight against the United States. Their first priority was to put their intellectual houses in order-that is, to adapt military thought and strategic planning to the new problem. The result is a set of ideas about how to bring the United States and its allies to a "culminating point" where they choose to no longer run the costs and risks of continued war. This is the "red theory of victory." Beginning in the second presidential term of Obama administration, the U.S. military focus began to shift, driven by rising Russian and Chinese military assertiveness and outspoken opposition to the regional security orders on their peripheries. But U.S. military thought has been slow to catch up. As a recent bipartisan congressional commission concluded, the U.S. intellectual house is dangerously out of order for this new strategic problem. There is no Blue theory of victory. Such a theory should explain how the United States and its allies can strip away the confidence of leaders in Moscow and Beijing (and Pyongyang) in their "escalation calculus"-that is, that they will judge the costs too high, the benefits to low, and the risks incalculable. To develop, improve, and implement the needed new concepts requires a broad campaign of activities by the United States and full partnership with its allies.

Extending Russia

Extending Russia PDF Author: James Dobbins
Publisher: RAND
ISBN: 1977400213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
As the U.S. National Defense Strategy recognizes, the United States is currently locked in a great-power competition with Russia. This report seeks to define areas where the United States can compete to its own advantage. It examines Russian vulnerabilities and anxieties; analyzes potential policy options to exploit them; and assesses the associated benefits, costs, and risks, as well as the likelihood of successful implementation.

War and Escalation in South Asia

War and Escalation in South Asia PDF Author: John E. Peters
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 083304091X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
This monograph highlights key factors in South Asia imperiling U.S. interests, and suggests how and where the U.S. military might play an expanded, influential role. It suggests seven steps the military might take to better advance and defend U.S. interests in South Asia, the Middle East, and Asia at large. Washington should intensify involvement in South Asia and become more influential with the governments there. Given the area's potential for violence, it should also shape part of the U.S. military to meet potential crises.