Tactics and Strategies to Defeat Islamist Extremism
Are U.S.-Russia relations spiraling towards conflict? The tangled set of issues crisscrossing the U.S.-Russian relationship does reflect the complexities of a classic wicked problem. Starkly differing perceptions of the other side’s intentions have garbled the signals that each believes it is sending and reinforced mistaken assumptions about how the other will react to events. Unsettled questions about Europe’s post-Cold War security architecture are fueling antagonisms. New and still poorly understood cyber technologies, coupled with the development of advanced strategic weapons delivery systems, are providing enormous advantages to the attacker over the defender, reinforcing perceptions of vulnerability while incentivizing aggression. Changes in the global geopolitical order have simultaneously threatened U.S. preeminence and provided tempting opportunities for Russia and other rival powers to advance their influence. Each side has increasingly tethered itself to unreliable proxies whose interests overlap with—but do not coincide with—those of their sponsors.
Can this relationship, based on these realities, be managed to avoid falling into conflict? As part of the ongoing Levy chair speakers' series on geopolitics and geo-economics, George Beebe will discuss the parameters of the "Russia Trap."
About this Lecture
Lectures of Opportunity offer NWC students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to learn more about national and international socio-political subjects that may be of relevance to the NWC community.