Carnegie Moscow Center
While it is generally understood that space technology has both civilian and military applications, the scientific and technical parameters of such technology have serious global policy implications.
As the melting Arctic ice cap opens new shipping lanes and makes it easier to access strategic energy reserves, countries are racing to gain control over the Arctic’s abundant natural resources.
There are significant arenas for military cooperation between Russia and the United States, including enforcing stability in Afghanistan and fighting against international terrorism.
Recent developments in Russia's foreign policy reflect the country's struggle to preserve its status as a “great power” through modernization.
While obstacles remain, the conditions are looking good for launching the negotiation process between Russia, the United States, and Europe on the creation of a joint missile defense system for the entire Euro-Atlantic region.
U.S.-Russia cooperation on civilian nuclear energy would enhance mutual security, promote economic growth, cement the gains of the reset, and provide the relationship with long-term stability.
After the New START reduced U.S. and Russian deployments of strategic nuclear arms, Russia has decided to rely even more on relatively fast-flying ground-launched missiles to deliver the strategic nuclear weapons that remain.
Russia’s current push for economic modernization coincides with growing political activism and concerns, both among domestic groups and in the West, about the absence of political liberalization.
While the "reset" in U.S.–Russian relations has come with closer cooperation on arms control, Afghanistan, and Iran, as long as Russia's system of personalized power rests on anti-Western principles, a true reset is unattainable.
If Russia wants to be a principal security provider and peace guarantor in the CIS space, it will need to refocus its strategy away from resisting NATO's drive and U.S. deployments and toward conflict prevention and conflict resolution.