The New Ice Curtain explores Russia’s strategic ambitions for its Arctic region—an understudied and underappreciated region that encompasses nearly the entire northern coast of Eurasia. As the Russian Arctic produces 14 percent of Russian GDP, 22 percent of its exports, and is home to nearly 2 million of its citizens, Russia’s economic future will increasingly depend on robust Arctic development. ,
Just five years after a Soviet missile blew a civilian airliner out of the sky over the North Pacific, an Alaska Airlines jet braved Cold War tensions to fly into tomorrow. Crossing the Bering Strait between Alaska and the Russian Far East, the 1988 Friendship Flight reunited Native peoples of common languages and cultures for the first time in four decades. It and other dramatic efforts to thaw what was known as the Ice Curtain launched a thirty-year era of perilous, yet prolific, progress. Melting the Ice Curtain tells the story of how inspiration, courage, and persistence by citizen-diplomats bridged a widening gap in superpower relations. David Ramseur was a first-hand witness to the danger and political intrigue, having flown on that first Friendship Flight, and having spent thirty years behind the scenes with some of Alaska’s highest officials. As Alaska celebrates the 150th anniversary of its purchase, and as diplomatic ties with Russia become perilous, Melting the Ice Curtain shows that history might hold the best lessons for restoring diplomacy between nuclear neighbors.
A thriller that explodes with taut suspense and raw emotion, The Ice Curtain pulls us into a murder mystery that is at once compelling and deeply moving. With the skill of a master storyteller, the bestselling author of Siberian Light breathes life into a haunting and unforgettable landscape, weaving a dazzlingly original story of murder, deceit...and diamonds. The Ice Curtain The Iron Curtain is down, and Russia has become a smuggler’s paradise. Hidden behind a curtain of ice in Siberia’s far north is the richest diamond mine on earth, a motherlode of treasure so vast it could break the back of the world’s oldest–and wealthiest–cartel. A cartel that will buy the enemies it can...and eliminate the ones it cannot. Against this turbulent backdrop, Gregori Nowek searches for the truth behind the murder of his best friend–shot in cold blood on a dark Moscow street. In a violent land where a twenty-dollar bill can buy or end a life, half a billion dollars in rough diamonds have vanished, lost between Siberia’s mines and Moscow’s vaults. The brutal murder of his best friend tests everything Nowek believes as a Russian, and as a man. In a dark realm of glittering diamonds, corrupt politicians, biznessmen, and cops caught up in the chaos of modern Russia, Nowek must find the missing diamonds before the world finds out they’re gone. At stake is the future of Russia itself. Nowek’s search will take him back to the place he knows best...Siberia, where the reason for his friend’s murder is buried inside a gem-filled chasm beneath eternal ice and snow. It is a secret guarded by the vastness of Siberia, the diamond cartel, and a beautiful young woman who, like the dazzling gems, is trapped in a grim city walled off from the world behind a curtain of ice. Dangerously stubborn and committed to the truth, Nowek risks his life to vindicate a friend, to secure Russia’s future, and to bring an astounding act of deception into the light of day. With haunting images and a powerful sense of character and place, The Ice Curtain is riveting entertainment. Deeply atmospheric and unfailingly gripping, it delivers top-notch suspense from its opening scene to its unforgettable climax.
"The story of a gallant young woman who survived six bleak years of exile in Siberia through courage, intrepid defiance, tenacity and steadfast devotion to her faith."--Cover
This volume seeks to fill the vacuum created by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress's decision to cease publishing comprehensive assessments of Russia's performance and potential. It provides readers with authoritative descriptions of Russia's economy, military prowess and international ambitions. The volume does not settle controversies, but does provide readers with an objective basis for assessing Russia's prospects without the distortions caused by fake news and disinformation wars.
Cataloguing the work of George Foote, 2014-2017. Fortuitous Knowledge is a book of essays, social commentary, and research from the fresh perspective of a former military strategist, celebrated academic and thinker.
Among scholars who focus on the politics of natural resources, conventional wisdom asserts that resource-scarce states have the strongest interest in securing control over resources. Counterintuitively, however, in Perils of Plenty, Jonathan N. Markowitz finds that the opposite is true. In actuality, what states make influences what they want to take. Specifically, Markowitz argues that the more economically dependent states are on resource extraction rents for income, the stronger their preferences will be to secure control over resources. He tests the theory with a set of case studies that analyze how states reacted to the 2007 exogenous climate shock that exposed energy resources in the Arctic. Given the dangerous potential for conflict escalation in the Middle East and the South China Sea and the continued shrinkage of the polar ice cap, this book speaks to a genuinely important development in world politics that will have implications for understanding the political effects of climate change for many years to come.
This timely book offers a critical account of key governance challenges of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Illustrating China’s efforts to expand its idea of a sustainable eco-civilization, thereby ‘greening’ the BRI, it explores the disputes that have emerged from this process and subsequent complications resulting from geopolitical competition.
Excerpt from Charting a Course: Strategic Choices for a New Administration: The new administration takes office in a time of great complexity. Our new President faces a national security environment shaped by strong currents: globalization; the proliferation of new, poor, and weak states, as well as nonstate actors; an enduring landscape of violent extremist organizations; slow economic growth; the rise of China and a revanchist Russia; a collapsing Middle East; and a domestic politics wracked by division and mistrust. While in absolute terms the Nation and the world are safer than in the last century, today the United States finds itself almost on a permanent war footing, engaged in military operations around the world. [...] No formal document describes a grand strategy for the United States, and indeed, many academics deny that one exists. Yet a close look at our history as a world power suggests that core interests and how we secure them have remained generally consistent over time. If grand strategy "rises above particular strategies intended to secure particular objectives," many decades of focusing on nuclear deterrence, power projection, alliances and partnerships, and military and economic strength probably constitute the underpinnings of a coherent grand strategy. How we employ and leverage these instruments of national power to protect, defend, and advance the national interest is, after all, the essence of grand strategy. In a dangerous world, these pillars have provided a strong foundation for national security. If our domestic politics can achieve consensus on future threats and solutions, America is well positioned to lead and prosper in a world that will remain both dangerous and uncertain. R.D. Hooker, Jr. Director, Institute for National Strategic Studies National Defense University Washington, D.C. Related items: Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs: New Methods for a New Era can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-020-01561-0 Operationalizing Counter Threat Finance Strategies can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01131-1
In the last two years, Canadian society has been marked by political and ideological turmoil. How does an increasingly divided country engage a world that is itself divided and tumultuous? Political instability has been reinforced by international uncertainty: the COVID-19 pandemic, populism, Black Lives Matter, and the chaotic final year of the Trump presidency that increased tensions between the West, China and Russia. Even with a Biden presidency, these issues will continue to influence Canada’s domestic situation and its ability to engage as an effective global actor. Contributors explore issues that cause or reflect these tensions, such as Canada’s willingness to address pressing crises through multilateralism, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Can Canada forge its own path in a turbulent world?
