On Monday 27 January 2014, the Research Division of the NATO Defense College (NDC) hosted a Roundtable on Russia, entitled “Does Russia matter?”
Bringing together 21 experts from various research institutions in Germany, Japan, Norway, Russia, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with senior practitioners from the International Military Staff (IMS), as well as International Staff (IS) members from NATO HQ, the Roundtable discussed Russia’s military reform and its foreign and security policy orientation.
The Roundtable was arranged into three panel sessions, chaired by NDC Senior Research Analyst, Heidi REISINGER (DEU C). Discussants in the first panel, on “Military Reform and Russian Foreign Policy”, were Roger N. McDERMOTT, Senior Fellow in Eurasian Military Studies at the Jamestown Foundation, Almaty; Dr Bettina RENZ, Lecturer in International Security at the University of Nottingham; and RAdm Emil EFTIMOV, Director of the Cooperation & Regional Security Division at NATO HQ. The presentations were commented on by Dr Igor SUTYAGIN, Senior Research Fellow at RUSI, London.
The second panel focused on “Russia between Europe and Asia: The Real Pivot”, with contributions from Dr Margarete KLEIN, Senior Associate at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin; and Dr Michito TSURUOKA, Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Defence Studies, Tokyo. Comments were provided by Dr Samuel CHARAP, Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS),Washington, and Aleksandr GOLTS, Deputy Editor of the web magazine, Yezhdnevny Zhurnal, Moscow.
The closing panel was conducted under the all-encompassing title of the roundtable, “Does Russia matter?” Presentations were given by Dr Ivan SAFRANCHUK, Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and Dr Richard WEITZ, Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, Washington.
Dr Karl-Heinz KAMP, Academic Director at the Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, Berlin, summarized the intensive discussions at the close of the Roundtable.
NDC Public Affairs Office
(Prepared by Ms Giulia A. Bruni Roccia)
NATO Defense College