Recent Publications

U.S. Interests in Central Asia and the Challenges to Them
March 1, 2007 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The author assesses the interests of the United States in Central Asia and the challenges to them. These challenges consist of the revival of the Taliban, Russo-Chinese efforts to oust U.S. strategic presence from the area, and the possibility of internal instability generated by the regression of local regimes form... MORE

Rosoboroneksport: Arms Sales and the Structure of Russian Defense Industry
January 1, 2007 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank Although Russian observers believe that Washington imposed sanctions in Russian arms sellers and producers because of these firms’ arms sales to Venezuela. Sales to such dangerous states oblige us to analyze the Russian defense export program and the structure of its defense industry. Until now, that industry would have... MORE

The NATO-Russia Partnership: A Marriage of Convenience or a Troubled Relationship?
November 1, 2006 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank Four years after the NATO-Russia Council came into being, it represents a picture in ambivalence and incomplete realization of partnership. This monograph focuses on the Russian side of this growing estrangement. It finds the Russian roots of this ambivalence or alienation in the increasingly visible manifestations of an... MORE

Is Eurasia’s Security Order at Risk?
May 8, 2006 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the May 2006 newsletter.Read Now MORE

Natural Allies? Regional Security in Asia and Prospects for Indo-American Strategic Cooperation
October 1, 2005 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank One of the hallmarks of the two Bush administrations' foreign and defense policies has been a growing rapprochement with India. Indeed, in June 2005 the U.S. Government signed a defense agreement with that country. In part, this rapprochement is driven by and coincides with India's increasingly visible role as a major... MORE

After Two Wars: Reflections on the American Strategic Revolution in Central Asia
July 1, 2005 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The author explains how this newly won access to the Transcaspian has come about and describes why it will remain important to the United States. He then offers analysis and recommendations as to how we might retain access to deal with future contingencies and examines intersecting geopolitical and strategic trends.Read... MORE

Seizing the Day: Resolution in and around the Black Sea
March 1, 2005 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the March 2005 newsletter.Read Now MORE

Toward a New U.S. Strategy in Asia
February 1, 2004 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the February 2004 newsletter.Read Now MORE

Rethinking Asymmetric Threats
September 1, 2003 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank For several years U.S. policymakers, officials, and writers on defense have employed the terms "asymmetric" or "asymmetry" to characterize everything from the nature of the threats we face to the nature of war and beyond. The author challenges the utility of using those terms to characterize the threats we face, one... MORE

Strategic Effects of Conflict with Iraq: Post-Soviet States
March 1, 2003 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The author has been asked to analyze four issues: the position that key states in their region are taking on U.S. military action against Iraq; the role of America in the region after the war with Iraq; the nature of security partnerships in the region after the war with Iraq; and the effect that war with Iraq will have... MORE

The Future of Transcaspian Security
August 1, 2002 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank This monograph explores the unprecedented opportunities that are now before the United States and recommends actions that the Government and armed forces, especially, but not only the U.S. Army, should undertake to consolidate and extend the newly emerging military partnership and cooperative security regime that are now... MORE

The Transatlantic Security Agenda: A Conference Report and Analysis
December 1, 2001 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank Immediately after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, NATO members unanimously voted their support for the United States under Article V of the Washington Treaty. This unprecedented action, the first time such a vote has occurred in NATO's history, underscores the vitality of the Atlantic... MORE