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Turkey’s Erdogan Must Choose, F-35 or S-400?

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The latest news that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is making a deal to purchase weapons from Russia has upset many government officials across the West and the entirety of the NATO alliance. According to the FDD, experts on foreign policy , this latest action begs the question, should Turkey be allowed to participate in the cooperative F-35 program? In recent years the NATO member country has been deepening its ties with Russia, and taken steps against the best interests of its Western allies under Erdogan’s rule. In addition to the direct actions they’ve taken against US military allies in Syria, and public displays of partnership with Vladimir Putin, Turkey has even kidnapped US citizens. Any of these actions on their own would draw Turkey’s loyalty to the Western alliance into question, but what’s extra concerning is the news that Turkey intends to purchase the S-400 ground-to-air weapons system from Russia in addition to purchasing the US made F-35 planes. A move that...

Russia Disinformation and Cyberwarfare

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In recent days some experts have observed that Russia’s annual budget for cyberwarfare is less than the price of a single American F-35 jet . Which weapon has done more to shape world events? America might have the most well-financed military in the world, but if we’re to maintain our national security we’ll need to shift our way of thinking about how warfare is waged. While the exact damage done by Russia’s interference is still not fully understood, it is quite clear that their information war was effective in transforming America’s political debate and dividing its population. Knowing what we know now about the detriment of misinformation and the DNC hackings it’s hard to imagine that at one point in recent history many considered the threat from Russia’s “troll army” to be laughable. Many ignored it outright as a juvenile attempt to assert a fraction of the global influence that the former soviet union once held. However, the more and more we hear about the extent of the d...