Saturday, June 11, 2011

NATO, Russia, Eurasia - on Midrats

SECDEF Gates and others are looking anew at the alliance that seems to have always been there. We're going to join them.

At a time when already small NATO defense budgets shrink while it is actively engaged in two combat operations decades after the Soviet treat faded into history - what is NATO and where does it stand? Is NATO "transforming" - and if so in to what?

From the ashes of the former Soviet Union - Russia and its near abroad are starting to re-establish their identity - what are the implications?

Keeping EagleOne and me company this Sunday, 12 JUN at 5-pm EST for the full hour will be CAPT Thomas Fedyszyn, (Ph.D.), USN (Ret.) - Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and Chair of the Europe-Russia Studies Group. We'll cover it all.

Join us live if you can and join in with the usual suspects in the chat room where you can contribute your thoughts and observation - and suggest to us questions for our guests.

If you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio - but the best way to get the show and download the archive to your audio player is to get a free account and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

1 comment:

ewok40k said...

Well, i was late for live broadcast, but very fine episode... still, for the new members, it is 5th article and defence guarantees the fundamental reason for joining NATO. Having faith in that eroded, expect at least some countries either accomodate Russia, or start to develop hedgehogh  doctrine - being costlier to swallow than calories gained. In case of Poland this means heavy investment in localized, heavy mech forces and antitank/AAW capability. And dropping all the expeditionary stuff allowing AFG, IRQ and similar deployments. Russia might be rusting bear, but still has enough weight to throw around. Putin still regards destruction of the Soviet Union as gretest tragedy in 20th century (remember that includes by comparison, both world wars, revolution/civil war, Stalin purges...). He has not qualms about using armed forces inside and outside borders. Too early to forget the skills for defending the Fulda Gap.