Carnegie Moscow Center
The failed attack on a U.S. airliner thirteen days ago thrust President Obama and his administration into the center of an intensified focus on domestic security. The president’s response to this new crisis has been generally strong as he balances several significant domestic challenges at the same time.
Efforts to combat terrorism largely defined the global security agenda during the past decade, when small terrorist groups, with as few as three hundred active members, were able to inflict enormous amounts of damage on regional, national, and international scales.
The five post-Soviet Central Asian republics—Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—share common political, cultural, and historical roots, but they are far from homogeneous, and continuing domestic and regional tensions could lead to violent conflict.
In his annual address, President Medvedev delivered a critical and shrewd assessment of Russia's state of affairs, but it remains to be seen whether fear of yielding political control will prevent the Kremlin from acting on Medvedev’s bold words.
At the top of Secretary Clinton's agenda during her visit to Russia is a discussion of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Conflicting messages from President Medvedev and Foreign Minister Lavrov leave the outcome of that discussion in doubt.
Russia and the United States are not likely to come to agreement on the best way to approach Iran’s nuclear ambitions any time soon. This issue is likely to be at the top of Secretary Clinton’s agenda during her time in Moscow.
As violence in the North Caucasus surges, Kremlin policies and its loyal, but brutal, local leaders have played a critical role in causing the situation.
Despite President Obama’s upcoming participation in the Russia-U.S. summit in St. Petersburg, much of the American foreign policy community remains at odds over U.S. policy towards Moscow.
In the wake of Kyrgyzstan’s decision to close its American airbase the U.S. must find a Central Asian location for its logistical operations outside of Afghanistan to ensure they remain uninterrupted in case the war deteriorates further.
Barack Obama’s term as U.S. president is likely to signal a change in U.S.-Russian relations, with U.S. foreign policy emphasizing pragmatism over ideology.