30 Nov 2020 | Publications

The topic of this issue is “Russian Military Strategy.” In it, the authors challenge Western received wisdom about Russian strategy and aim to stimulate critical thinking. Andrew Monaghan critiques the West’s fixation on Russian hybrid warfare as outdated, while Dima Adamsky argues that Anti Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) is, contrary to Western conventional wisdom, nonexistent in the Russian lexicon. Michael Kofman unpacks these concerns further, questioning the scenarios for a Russian fait accompli in the Baltics envisioned by Western defense planning circles and challenging the claim that a Russian “fait accompli strategy” is even possible. Pavel Sharikov rounds out the issue by suggesting small steps that the US and Russia might take to enhance their cooperation on the nonmilitary use of cyberspace.

9 Nov 2020 | Publications

The topic of this issue is 'Media Capture'. Firstly, Heiko Pleines analyzes the control of business and state actors over mass media in Russia. Secondly, Esther Somfalvy summarizes the chain of events that led to the mass walkout of all leading editorial staff of the business newspaper Vedomosti and highlights the context in which it took place. Finally, Anna Litvinenko posits that the Russian state continues to tolerate social media, as they also provide a number of benefits for the regime, such as citizen feedback, illusion of democracy and a way to vent people’s anger.

Oct 2020 | Publications

This Risk and Resilience Report by Kevin Kohler, Andrin Hauri, Florian Roth, Tim Prior and Benjamin Scharte discusses the national coordination of reporting under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 (SFDRR). Looking at six case studies (Austria, France, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland), it finds that there is considerable institutional variety in how the reporting is organized between ministries. Some countries struggle with data availability. Other common critical issues include that data on infrastructure and insurance claims are not shared by the private sector, and that the comparability of data within and between countries is not always given due to different definitions and reporting criteria.