Time's Battleland: Future grand strategists: Russia will someday be forced to outsource its security
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 9:00AM 
Hailing again from Wikistrat's International Grand Strategy Competition (30 teams of grad students/interns from elite universities and think tanks around the world), where I serve as head judge (and I get paid), I wanted to share the decidedly provocative vision of Russia's long-term future security paradigm as crafted by the New York University team (find their national trajectory here). A certain segment of the US national security establishment got all jacked by Russia's short war with tiny Georgia in August 2008, seeing in that raw display of power a “resurging” military superpower. NYU begs to differ.
Read more: http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/06/23/future-grand-strategists-russia-will-someday-be-forced-to-outsource-its-security/#ixzz1Q2DZOHGO
Read the entire post at Time's Battleland.
Reader Comments (2)
For MANY decades, analysts have noted that vodka, limited desire to produce and care for children, and other social deterioration from long term stresses of failed demanding Soviet programs would produce these consequences.
Russians that resisted those stresses often became crooked capitalists with gov't links, or they went to Europe or US as legitimate workers & investors, or the local Mafia guys. Most were smart and talented.
But back in Russia there was too often less motivation and confidence.
Energy and material products, and war toys for egotistical foreign leaders, remain their export core.
Contrast this with China, but then Mao & other early leaders had more insights on capitalist positive potentials, and the limits of state run economies. Instead, they focused on avoiding the social and economic gambling and resultant distresses that came with their exposure to Western colonial capitalism.
Going back to Marco Polo era we can see the Khans wanted to carefully benefit from contact with evolving Western economies without gambling on their own multiple peoples' tendency to overdue their contacts. I think Tom & others see that culturally rooted Chinese wisdom.
During the Clinton Administration, Hillary toured small Russian rural areas to talk with women and provide small US funds so they could learn and try locally produced and needed goods and services. The Russian men at the time were just oriented towards seeking participation in government or Russian Mafia type activities. The relatively small number of economic pragmatists in Russian government were often properly oriented by Communist era spy efforts in US to understand the strengths and 'vulnerabilities' of our political-economic culture.
Today we face similar opportunities and problems dealing with the old tribal macho orientation of male cultures in Afghanistan and (to a lesser extent) Pakistan. There is some indications that we still have an opportunity to reach out to pragmatic women who are not supported by the 'guy' culture either in the establishment or family.
As far as I know the establishment/tribal 'guy' culture has not been a strong constraint on China over long periods.