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1401. Increasing the Focus on Iran's Corruption

Author:
Michael Jacobson
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Although Iran has formally accepted the U.S. offer to meet on October 1, expectations are low, particularly since Tehran has made clear that the nuclear issue is not negotiable. The United States and its allies have already begun to prepare for the possibility of failed negotiations by developing potential sanctions packages that could be imposed on Tehran. Unfortunately, due to Chinese and Russian opposition, pushing a strong resolution through the UN Security Council appears unlikely. Washington, however, can adopt other multilateral approaches to increase the pressure on Iran, such as ramping up its anticorruption enforcement efforts against companies doing business in Iran, and encouraging other countries to do the same. Given the widespread corruption in Iran, and the powerful anticorruption legislation in place in many countries worldwide, this approach could have a significant impact on the regime.
Topic:
Corruption and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Iran

1402. Russia's Spheres of Interest, not Influence

Author:
Dmitri V. Trenin
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
In the aftermath of the 2008 Georgian war, President Dmitri Medvedev, setting out Russia's foreign policy principles, spoke about the country's spheres of ''privileged interests'' and the government's obligation to defend Russian citizens abroad. Coming less than a month after Russia's armed response to Georgia's attack on its breakaway province of South Ossetia, where most residents had been provided with Russian passports, this statement produced a shock. It sounded as if Moscow was reclaiming the Soviet geopolitical legacy of Russia's spheres of influence and was prepared to intervene with force in countries with significant ethnic Russian minorities. The talk of Russian assertiveness, making rounds since the mid-2000s, was substantially enhanced by accusations of Russia's outright aggressive behavior.
Political Geography:
Russia, Moscow, and Georgia

1403. Can Berlin and Washington Agree on Russia?

Author:
Stephen F. Szabo
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
Both Russia and Germany are back on the U.S. agenda. Russia will be a key element of a wide array of policies to the Obama administration, including dealing with Iran and the construction of a broader nonproliferation regime, energy security, nuclear arms reductions, and Afghanistan. Russia policy will also be central to U.S. designs for NATO, including how to deal with Georgia and Ukraine, and the viability of a pan-European security structure.
Topic:
NATO
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, Europe, Washington, Ukraine, Georgia, and Berlin

1404. Realpolitik Dynamics and Image Construction in the Russia-China Relationship: Forging a Strategic Partnership?

Author:
Maria Raquel Freire and Carmen Amado Mendes
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Russia and China are two big players in the international system, both of which share interests and concerns and compete for preponderance and affirmation at the regional level. As a framework for political-military cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) frames this relationship in an institutional setting that might be understood as a tool for rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing or as a strategic manoeuvre for balancing an unbalanced international order. Thus the following question arises: is Russian-Chinese cooperation discourse mere political rhetoric or does it imply the intentional forging of a goal-orientated partnership? The relationship between Russia and China in political and security terms reveals identifiable common concerns, such as counter-terrorism or the fight against organised crime, while simultaneously masking the underpinning drivers, based on realpolitik dynamics and image construction on both sides (power projection, regional affirmation). This means that the strategic partnership dialogue between Moscow and Beijing is still far from being real. Realpolitik considerations rise above institutional goals, showing the lines of (dis)continuity in discourse and practice in this bilateral relationship.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Beijing, and Moscow

1405. Chinese Perceptions of Russian Foreign Policy During the Putin Administration: U.S.-Russia Relations and "Strategic Triangle" Considerations

Author:
Joseph Yu-shek Cheng
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This article examines the Chinese perception of Russian foreign policy during the Putin administration by analysing Beijing's assessment of Russia's foreign policy objectives and its policy towards the U.S., as reflected in the official media and the authoritative publications of China's major security and foreign policy think tanks. Promoting multipolarity and checks and balances against U.S. unilateralism has been a very significant consideration on the part of the Chinese leadership. Using the concept of the "strategic triangle", the article demonstrates how changes in U.S.-Russian relations have probably become the most important variable in this push for multipolarity. In the past decade and a half, Sino-Russian relations have improved when Russia has become disappointed with the support it received from the U.S. There have also been periods of time when Russia has anticipated closer relations with the U.S. and thus neglected China's vital interests. The Chinese leadership, however, has exercised restraint at such times. There has been greater optimism in Beijing concerning Sino-Russian relations in recent years because of the expanding economic ties, Russia's increasing oil wealth and Putin's authoritarian orientation.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and China

1406. Russian outward FDI and its policy context

Author:
Andrei Panibratov and Kalman Kalotay
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from Russia often surprises outside observers by its landmark deals. One of them was the purchase in September 2009 of a 55% stake in General Motors' German affiliate Opel by a consortium of the Canadian car maker Magna and the Russian state-owned bank Sberbank. The latter is the largest creditor of the Russian car maker GAZ, and may represent its commercial interests in the contract. With this deal, Russia has bought into the industrial heartland of the world economy and could potentially access more advanced technology. This acquisition hints at the growth of Russian OFDI in general, which has prospered despite fears in many host countries that the investors are subject to Russian political interference, a fear that recently announced Russian policy intentions may allay.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

1407. Esber: Under the Cover of War: The Zionist Expulsion of the Palestinians

Author:
Nur Masalha
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
The Nakba—a mini-holocaust for the Palestinians—is a key point in the history of Palestine and Israel: In 1948, a country and its people disappeared from international maps and dictionaries. The Nakba resulted in the destruction of much of Palestinian society, and much of the Arab and Islamic landscape was obliterated by the Israeli state—a state created by a an settler-colonial community that immigrated into Palestine in the period between 1882 and 1948. About 90 percent of the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from the territory occupied by Israel in 1948–49—many by psychological warfare, a large number at gunpoint. After 1948, the historic Arabic names of geographical sites were replaced by newly coined Hebrew names, some of which resembled biblical names.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Israel, and Palestine

1408. Russia, the United States, and the Challenge of Global Nonproliferation

Author:
John Beyrle
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Council of American Ambassadors
Abstract:
Speaking to Russian students at the New Economic School graduation during his visit to Moscow in July, President of the United States, Barack Obama, succinctly expressed the greatest challenge facing us: the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Topic:
Economics and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Moscow

1409. Russia-U.S.: Resetting Relations

Author:
Nikolai Sofinsky
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
East View Information Services
Abstract:
“THE STATUE OF LIBERTY as a symbol for America was replaced with Guantanamo” – this is how Zbigniew Brzezinski described his country in a recent interview with the Der Spiegel magazine. The former U.S. presidential national security advisor, now a respectable political expert and foreign policy consultant for the B. Obama administration, made such a grim assessment of the eight-year performance by George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. president.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and America

1410. Business as Usual? Consequences of the Russian-Georgian Conflict

Author:
Ernest Wyciszkiewicz, Marcin Terlikowski, Bartosz Cichocki, Aleksandra Kreczmańska, Marek Madej, and Łukasz Kulesa(ed.)
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The developments that followed the Russian-Georgian ceasefire agreement have verified some early predictions, whether these were alarmists forecasts of Russia's continued strong-arm expansion or expectations that a conflict-induced shock would mobilize the West to form a uniform front in order to contain Russia. For yet another time, though, it turned out that events originally seen as a breakthrough in international relations tended, with time, to assume a different—even if no less momentous—meaning.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and War
Political Geography:
Russia