Foreign Policies In Russia

Recent events have tilted the Middle East in favor of growing Russian hegemony. As Putin continues to employ his power-grab strategies, he is successfully making inroads for Russian influence in the Middle East and Arab world. This emerging trend has been given space for growth as a result of a different world power shifting its influence away from the region. The U.S is withdrawing its physical presence from Syria and other areas in the Middle East, and as a consequence a power vacuum has emerged. Instead of many Middle Eastern countries or groups of people having greater influence over their own political futures as previous critics of U.S. foriegn policy might hope for, U.S. withdrawal is producing the opposite. Most of these smaller countries lack the capability to stand up to the influence of more powerful world and regional players who have an interest in the region. Between Iran, Russia, and Turkey, influence in the Arab world previously exerted by the U.S. is being more ...

It's no secret Vladimir Putin wants Russia to be the great superpower again it was before the collapse of the USSR. It's also obvious that Putin wants to maintain relevance on the world stage. Russia is energy rich, politically astute, and has a reputation for a strong military - thus, a force to be reckoned with. It uses this power to its advantage across the globe as The Washington Times explains . Russia's Middle East Meddling In the Middle East Russia is working to establish stronger ties with Iran, assisting with a missile defense system (S-300) to prevent any future potential US strike. Meanwhile, Iran continues using proxy terrorist strategies across the Middle East as a method to serve its political will. And, of course, we know all too well what Russia has been doing in Syria propping up the Assad regime, while claiming to defend their Russian military port, now Russia has an airbase in Syria too. Today, Syria has been all but destroyed leaving a humanitarian d...

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...

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...