... taken place in terms of equipping the armed forces of the sides (for example, drones – something that did not even cross the minds of the politicians drafting the treaty back in 1990 – are now widespread). That notwithstanding, the experience of the CFE Treaty retains its value, and one of the strategic tasks of Russian foreign policy moving forward could be to reach an agreement on the signing of a CFE 2 or similar document in the near future.
Shifting the emphasis from counteracting NATO’s inchoate expansion plans to searching for concrete options to limit NATO’s military infrastructure in Europe should not be seen as Russia capitulating to the West. It is simply the most rational, and potentially most productive, response to ...
... look at the conflicts in Ukraine or Syria, you will find that the high-tech weapons we envisioned for the future are not being used. Rather, the weapons being used are conventional, have been around for the last 30–40 years and are limited by the CFE Treaty (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe). Nonetheless, Russia has suspended all the CFE Treaties and NATO has failed to ratify the adaptation agreement necessary because of its enlargement to the East. The Baltic states never joined the Treaty, so now we see heightened tension in the region. Therefore we need to take urgent measures. Despite that, the ...
... armed forces. Although we have not yet reached a full arms race, we are on the brink of one. In terms of military options, the issue at stake is no longer “large-scale offensive options” of a continental-size in the sense of the preamble of the CFE Treaty, but the perception of emerging options for a surprise attack in the contact regions between NATO and Russia, particularly in the Baltic and the Black Sea regions.
The Risks of Deterrence
Group Statement on Nuclear Arms Control
Any military deterrence relationship necessarily involves risks and inherently drives escalation. The three most important ...
... the Joint Consultative Group (JCG), which doesn’t constitute a withdrawal, or denunciation, in and of itself. Under the Treaty, it’s only done by conference of participating states.
In any case, it is no coincidence that the fate of the CFE Treaty was sealed during a new cycle of tension between Russia and the NATO. NATO’s growing military activities close to the Russian borders, as well as Russian air forces’ return visits to the NATO airspace, prompted Moscow to resolve the CFE issue to good – a move the Russian government had been saving ...
