Analysis

This listing contains all the analytical materials posted on the Russia Matters website. These include: RM Exclusives, commissioned by Russia Matters exclusively for this website; Recommended Reads, deemed particularly noteworthy by our editorial team; Partner Posts, originally published by our partners elsewhere; and Future Policy Leaders, pieces by promising young scholars and policy thinkers. Content can be filtered by genre and subject-specific criteria and is updated often. Gradually we will be adding older Recommended Reads and Partner Posts dating back as far as 2011.
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When Allies Go Nuclear: How to Prevent the Next Proliferation Threat

Chuck Hagel, Malcolm Rifkind, Kevin Rudd and Ivo Daalder February 12, 2021 Recommended Reads
The United States faces a new nucler proliferation threat, this time from its own allies.
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It’s Better to Deal with China and Russia in Tandem

Thomas Graham and Robert Legvold February 04, 2021 Recommended Reads
Putting China and Russia into policy silos will be counterproductive.
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Why Russia’s Alliance With China is Improbable, But Not Impossible

Simon Saradzhyan September 21, 2020 Partner Posts
The relationship between China and Russia is getting stronger by the hour. While some might say that Russia and China are in a de facto non-aggression pact, a deeper alliance is still unlikely, though not impossible.
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A Conversation Between Graham Allison and Angela Stent

Graham Allison and Angela Stent August 01, 2020 Recommended Reads
The U.S. leadership is slowly waking up to the reality of a Russia-China entente. This is an unnatural partnership. But U.S. policies have driven China and Russia closer, and Putin and Xi have managed their differences well.
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At the Brink: Loose Nukes

Lisa Perry with Ash Carter, William Perry, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Sam Nunn July 20, 2020 Partner Posts
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In the Chaos of Syrian Geopolitics, Russia Remains Dominant

Kamal Alam May 15, 2020 Recommended Reads
Recent talk of a rift between Moscow and Damascus may ignore Russia’s historic role in Syria.
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Ukraine, Not Russia, Will Sue for Peace as Pandemic Pressure Rises

Joseph Haberman May 14, 2020 Recommended Reads
With the prospect of a major economic crisis, Russia and Ukraine may face increasing pressure to lessen the burden to their economies and populations by seeking a peace settlement in Donbass. The pandemic could compel Ukraine to capitulate first.
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The Golunov Case Exposes Russia’s ‘Submerged State’

Alexey Yeremenko June 13, 2019 Recommended Reads
The 'submerged-state' is the level of government most often interacted with by investors and is capable of derailing the policies of the ‘outer state.’
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China and Russia: A Strategic Alliance in the Making

Graham T. Allison December 14, 2018 Recommended Reads
Defying the long-held convictions of Western analysts, and against huge structural differences, Beijing and Moscow are drawing closer together to meet what each sees as the "American threat."
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Stumbling Toward Armageddon

Sergei Radchenko October 09, 2018 Recommended Reads
What the U.S. had thought was a Soviet attempt to subvert American influence during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 was actually a case of bad crisis management, newly declassified documents suggest.
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Dawn of a New Armageddon

Cynthia Lazaroff August 06, 2018 Partner Posts
Perhaps the world was safer during the Cold War. Today’s world has entered a new, unchecked and deadly arms race, and arms control has become hostage to political hostilities between the United States and Russia.
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From Mutually Assured Destruction to Mutually Assured Delusion (and Back?)

Simon Saradzhyan March 12, 2018 Recommended Reads
If U.S. and Russian decision-makers do not just profess but also genuinely believe in the continuing decline and pending collapse of each other’s countries, then chances are they will act more assertively against each other.