Friday, June 30, 2017

Paul Robinson — Threat perceptions


Nations plan militarily and allocate military spending based on threat perceptions.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency has issued a report entitled Russia. Military Power: Building a Military to Support Great Power Aspirations, which you can read here. This has the following to say about Russia’s strategic objectives:

Moscow seeks to promote a multi-polar world predicated on the principles of respect for state sovereignty and non-interference in other states’ internal affairs, the primacy of the United Nations, and a careful balance of power preventing one state or group of states from dominating the international order.... 
Next the report analyzes ‘Russia’s threat perceptions’, and notes that Russia’s actions “belie a deeply entrenched sense of insecurity regarding a United States that Moscow believes is intent on undermining Russia at home and abroad.” ...
This report will no doubt raise alarms in Washington about how Russia is modernizing its armed forces. What the report has to say about why Russia is doing so will probably be ignored.
I don't think that it will be ignored. Rather, it will be perceived as a challenge to US global hegemony, the maintaining of which is a policy objective and strategic priority.

Irrussianality
Threat perceptions
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

1 comment:

Noah Way said...

The intro says everything you need to know. Russia annexed Crimea and destabilized Eastern Ukraine. Blatant lies as the basis for global strategic military planning.

Meanwhile the real threats to the nation's security are civil unrest (the next crash, the dismembering of social services), natural disaster (solar storm destroying energy grid, super hurricane, etc.), economic collapse.