preview

Although The Cold War Ended Without Major Inter-State Hostilities

Good Essays

Although the Cold War ended without major inter-state hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union, only the United States was left standing as a world superpower. The Russian economy was crippled as was its military – severely limiting its ability to exert influence globally. Since 1999, the Russian budget has grown significantly , as has Moscow’s willingness to engage in inter-state conflict as observed in its Second Chechen War (once again gaining control of Chechnya after the first war half a decade prior resulted in a humiliating defeat), the 2008 war with Georgia (resulting in the expansion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia), and the current conflict with Ukraine as a result of the annexation of Crimea. Coupled with its …show more content…

This leads into the second: reassuring our allies of security, which is both a policy objective as well as an end in itself. Russian influence in the information age, however, is much wider than its physical lines of communication, meaning that the third end sought is to counter Russian propaganda and electronic influence; while Russian threats to cybersecurity are not specifically mentioned, cybersecurity as a whole concept is and we cannot ignore Russian capabilities as we implement the NSS. The final end is to open the door for cooperation with Russia. By achieving these ends, we are assured to continue a peaceful coexistence with Russia. As attainment of the ends will lead to the accomplishment of the stated NSS strategic goals, they are assessed as suitable. That is not to say that achieving them will be easy, but the NSS has identified very reasonable ways by which we can be successful. The ways by which we can achieve these ends are described in the NSS and NMS. First, multilateral sanctions in conjunction with allied nations will be used to levy “costs and deter future aggression” . Further, the United States has recommitted to honoring our security commitments with allies within the Russian sphere of influence with the intent of serving as a deterrent to Russian aggression via improved defensive capabilities (for countries such as

Get Access