Russia in Global Affairs

Technology has become one of the most important spheres in the race for power in the 21st century. The two main technology ecosystems – the American and the Chinese – have clearly taken shape by the beginning of the third decade of the new century. A dilemma for Russia in this regard is whether to join one of the existing platforms or develop one of its own.

Scenario simulation of the malicious use of artificial intelligence and protection against related threats requires broad international cooperation and the creation of special national and international scientific and practical centers.

Unmanned military systems – or ‘military robots’ – are becoming more commonplace among the rising number of armies around the world and are used with increasing frequency in combat. Leading powers, their challengers as well as their non-state combat opponents have begun to design, test, and field numerous unmanned systems.

Almost 35 years ago, US President Ronald Reagan settled down in the White House to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster WarGames as part of his regular Sunday film night. The film, starring a young Matthew Broderick, depicted a teenage computer hacker accidentally breaking into top-secret Pentagon supercomputers that controlled US nuclear weapons.

Since August 2017, legislation allowing the imposition of a range of new sanctions against Russia has been passed by US lawmakers. Although not all this legislation has thus far been implemented by the president, Donald Trump, the mere threat of more draconian economic sanctions from the US created considerable uncertainty in Russia.

The world is not in disarray, it is in transition. As wealth and power move to the South and the East again after a couple of centuries, the validity of some normative assumptions and the efficacy of incumbent institutions that manage the world order is being severely tested.

Russia is genetically an authoritative country. This must be calmly accepted and used as a competitive advantage. Another factor that pushes us towards the pivot is that Europe is stagnating, locked in a complex crisis, and not really capable of much, while Asia is growing rapidly, due in no small part to military “cover” from Russia.

The first phase of Russia’s turn towards rising Asia is gaining momentum – the Far East’s rate of development is twice the national average.

Many bad things have been said about nuclear weapons in the decades since they first came into existence. Indeed, in the middle of the 20th century the human race developed a means of confrontation with the potential to destroy the entire world were it used on a large scale.