Recent Publications

Russian Interests in Sub-Saharan Africa
July 12, 2013 — Author: Mr Keir Giles View the Executive SummaryAn apparent lack of interest by Russia in Sub-Saharan Africa over recent years masks persistent key strategic drivers for Moscow to re-establish lost influence in the region. A preoccupation with more immediate foreign policy concerns has temporarily interrupted a process of Russia reclaiming... MORE

Cyber Infrastructure Protection: Vol. II
May 3, 2013 — Authors: Dr Vincent Boudreau, COL Louis H Jordan Jr, Dr Tarek N Saadawi View the Executive SummaryIncreased reliance on the Internet and other networked systems raise the risks of cyber attacks that could harm our nation’s cyber infrastructure. The cyber infrastructure encompasses a number of sectors including: the nation’s mass transit and other... MORE

The Energy and Security Nexus: A Strategic Dilemma
November 1, 2012 — Author: Dr Carolyn Pumphrey The relationship between energy and security has been receiving increasing attention over the last few years. Energy literally drives the global economy. Societies rely on it for everything from advanced medical equipment to heating, cooling, and irrigation. Whether it derives from advanced nuclear reactors in developed... MORE

Cover for The Energy and Security Nexus: A Strategic Dilemma

Colloquium Brief: The Energy and Security Nexus: A Strategic Dilemma
July 15, 2011 — Key Insights. The U.S. is relatively well placed when it comes to energy security (defined as security from shocks in prices). We are finding more fossil fuels — especially natural gas — and are otherwise buffered from disaster by advantages ranging from the existence of strategic reserves to market mechanisms that plug gaps in our supply. In the future, we have less to fear from diminishing supply than from rising demand, especially in rapidly industrializing countries. The U.S. should engage in a policy of strategic restraint in the Middle East: military force is not the best instrument to use in securing energy supplies. However, the U.S. Armed Forces can increase energy efficiency, provided this does not undermine the effectiveness of its fighting forces... MORE

Russia in the Arctic
July 1, 2011 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The Arctic has returned with a vengeance as an area of international contention. Beginning in 2007, Russia has continued to make aggressive moves and claims regarding territory in the Arctic Ocean. These moves undoubtedly have been prompted by global climate change and the importance of energy, with which Russia believes... MORE

Russian Military Politics and Russia's 2010 Defense Doctrine

Nuclear Power’s Global Expansion: Weighing Its Costs and Risks
December 1, 2010 — Author: Mr Henry D Sokolski When security and arms control analysts list what has helped keep nuclear weapons technologies from spreading, energy economics is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Yet, large civilian nuclear energy programs can—and have—brought states quite a way towards developing nuclear weapons; and it has been market economics, more than... MORE

Cover for Nuclear Power's Global Expansion: Weighing Its Costs and Risks

Strategic Implications of Emerging Technologies
June 1, 2009 — Author: Dr Antulio J Echevarria II KEY INSIGHTS:• The conference could only scratch the surface regarding the strategic implications of several important emerging technologies, namely, biogenetics, biometrics, nanotechnologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, alternative energies, and electromagnetic weaponry. More research is needed in the form... MORE

Baloch Nationalism and the Geopolitics of Energy Resources: The Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan
April 1, 2008 — Author: Dr Robert J Wirsing The author examines the energy context of the simmering Baloch separatist insurgency that has surfaced in recent years in Pakistan’s sprawling Balochistan province. In particular, he looks at how Pakistan’s mounting energy insecurity--a product of rapid increase in demand coupled with rising scarcity and the region’s... MORE

Turkmenistan and Central Asia after Niyazov
September 1, 2007 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank President Sapirmurat Niyazov, the all-powerful leader of Turkmenistan, suddenly died on December 21, 2006. Because Central Asia is a cockpit of great power rivalry and a potential theater in the Global War on Terrorism, no sooner had Niyazov died than the great powers were all in Turkmenistan seeking to influence its... MORE

Chinese Perceptions of Traditional and Nontraditional Security Threats
March 1, 2007 — Author: Ms Susan L Craig To understand the motivations and decisions of China’s leadership and to behave in a manner so that we can influence them, we must try to understand the world as China does. This research is an attempt to do so by examining the writings and opinions of China’s scholars, journalists and leaders--its “influential elite.”... MORE

Iron Troikas: The New Threat from the East
March 28, 2006 — Author: Dr Richard J Krickus There has been widespread discussion of Russia's efforts to exploit its energy assets to influence developments in Ukraine; specifically, to put pressure on the leaders of the Orange Revolution who have adopted a Western orientation, rather than one toward the East—Russia. The author explains how the Russian leadership... MORE

Energy, Economics, and Security in Central Asia: Russia and Its Rivals
March 1, 1995 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to the creation of five new states in Central Asia. These states: Kazkahstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan, have become both the object of international rivalries in Central Asia and the sources of new political forces as they act to enlarge their... MORE