Russian Strategic Culture: Why the Past Matters

Today, strategic culture becomes an essential element of the national security policy of the Russian Federation. While absorbing some modern aspects, its strategic culture reflects historical lessons learnt by the Russian Empire and the USSR. Russia still cannot refuse from the idea to restore its superpower status and to fight for new territories. Thus, we can define a number of essential elements of the Russian strategic culture formed in relation to the historical and contemporary development of this state. Throughout the history, the Russians have legitimized the decisions and activities of the ruling elites. As the Russian leadership has long built up powerful associations which had taken root in the minds of people while remembering patriotism and love for their Motherland, the Russians believe in the importance of maintaining and enhancing patriotic feelings. While cultivating its civilizational and cultural detachment, Russia continues developing its own messianic idea which envisages the views of the special historical kismet of Russia. In order to fulfill its global tasks, Russia uses the policy of military interventions and violates state sovereignty of other countries, since the ‘militant’ political culture of its leaders has always militarized the strategic culture of the RF. So, the strategic culture of Russia emanates from the unique position and history of this state which manages to adapt it to the new realities. However, Russia’s aspirations to reclaim its status as a global superpower at any cost do not allow its strategic culture to be changed or even to be altered.

Memahami Power dan Weakness: Sebuah Literature Review

This paper is a literature review of Robert Kagan’s article titled ‘power and weakness’ aiming to describe the US and the Europe’s perception on power in international system and their ‘trans-Atlantic’ relationship regarding ‘power’. The role of the US’ power has been known to contribute to the development of current Europe. Though, the Europe has experienced good relationship with the US since the Cold War and only softly challenged against the US’ policies in many conflicts, Kagan argued that the Europe has differing strategic culture from the US in responding the global issues when it comes to regional security and national interest, which has been driven by its decreased power.

Strategic Culture of the United States of America – Comparative Background

Culture is the natural environment of the strategy, which itself directly shapes security by providing ideas and standards for professional strategists or politicians setting specific goals and tasks in the area of security. In this article, the author attempts to examine the process of shaping the strategic culture of the United States and to show the similarities and differences with the strategic culture of the People’s Republic of China. The basic research method that was applied was the literature analysis on the basis of which the author comes to the general conclusion that there are many similarities and differences (with the predominance of the latter) between the cultures of the United States and the People's Republic of China. They result primarily from the history of both powers, the attitude to threats and the usage of the armed forces, as well as the pursued security and foreign policy.

Discerning Poland’s Contemporary Strategic Culture: An analysis of the 2020 National Security Strategy of the Republic of Poland

The article analyses the Polish government’s recently published National Security Strategy in an attempt to discern the broad outlines of the strategic culture within Poland’s strategic community. The article adopts a ‘fourth generation’ approach to the conception of strategic culture, which posits that there are often rival subcultures within strategic communities, which can often result in dramatic shifts in a state’s security policies over time. There is a brief discussion of how conflicting subcultures can be identified in Poland’s foreign policies in the past before the article discusses what Poland’s current Strategy reveals about the strategic culture of today’s decision-makers. It broadly argues that there are obvious continuities in Poland’s security policies, notably in terms of how the Russian Federation is regarded as a hostile state and the degree to which NATO and the EU serve to strengthen Poland’s security. It is also possible to see more minor shifts in Poland’s security policies in recent years, such as a renewed emphasis on territorial defence and a willingness to align itself with several states which are relatively antagonistic towards the EU.

China–Turkey Relations from the Perspective of Neoclassical Realism

There is plenty of studies focusing on China’s global outreach through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In tandem with this, the extensive literature on China depicts it as the next hegemon to succeed in the USA. Along this line, flourishing ties with various Asian nations, including the Middle Eastern countries, as a result of China’s recent foreign policy activism has been addressed extensively. While most research has been stressing the rising assertiveness of China in world politics, only a limited number of studies have touched upon the responses from middle or small powers against China’s ascent. Drawing from neoclassical realism, this article contends two levels of analysis for delineating the interaction between Turkey, a middle power, and China, a rising great power. First, the exchange between Turkey and the USA is vital in determining the cordial relations between Turkey and China. Alteration in the American policy vis-à-vis Turkey in the wake of the Arab Spring is relevant to Turkey’s growing relations with China. Second, is the rising anti-Westernism of foreign policy elites as part of the alteration in the strategic culture of Turkish politics, which makes Turkey’s rapprochement with China possible. Nevertheless, it should be noted that these two levels are intertwined and feed each other. Consequently, employing a neoclassical realist approach, the article argues that the middle powers’ stance against a rising hegemon is conditional upon the bilateral relations with the current hegemon and peculiarities of domestic politics.

Geopolitical Thinking behind the US Policy-Making toward China and the Diplomatic Choice of Japan

The roots of US policy toward China are laid in the geopolitical thinking mode of its strategic culture. This mode of thinking first originated in Britain and later evolved into geopolitics. Bearing such thoughts, the United States sees China as a country at the southeastern rim of the Eurasian continent, and the rise of China is a threat to its dominance as a maritime state in the Eurasian continent. No matter the rotation of governing parties in the United States, containing the development of China is not merely an expedient for electoral politics but an inevitable choice for maritime states to contain continental states and an objectively necessary national security strategy aimed at retaining the global hegemony of the United States. As China further develops, such intention will become more and more apparent. In order to achieve the goal of slowing down China’s development pace and maintaining US’s political dominance over Eurasia, it seems that the United States has to build a maritime alliance system. The alliance between Japan and the United States will be further strengthened since Japan is a strategic pivot of this system. However, Japan’s perception of interests and strategic thinking are not fully aligned with those of the United States, and as a result, Japan will choose strategies with a certain degree of autonomy, thus eventually limiting the implementation of US’s geopolitical strategies. From the viewpoints of power transfer, geopolitics and ideology for the confrontation between maritime and continental states, this paper focuses on the limitations of the geopolitical thinking behind US’s policy-making toward China and the relatively autonomous strategy of Japan to analyze the status quo and underlying trends of China–US–Japan relations.

Unpacking Strategic Behavior in Cyberspace: A Schema-Driven Approach

The contemporary literature on cybersecurity and related interstate interactions often cites the need to overcome uncertainty due to an inherent deficit of information about cyber operations. While this notion continues to appear relevant in studies that advance our understanding of state behavior in cyberspace, noticeable gaps remain. These gaps particularly stem from the limited utility of cyber operations to shift the balance of strategic power between states or to signal intent and resolve effectively. In response, this article advances a cognitive-cultural framework wherein behavior reflects preferences derived from schema usage. Using cross-national wargames, the article illustrates the schematic use of strategic culture as a basis for deriving strategic objectives and the means with which these are achieved. Consequently, the article serves as the initial foray in expanding our understanding of interstate behavior in cyberspace.

Tracing Strategic Preferences in Cyberspace: The Role of Regional and Domestic Strategic Culture

Our understanding of strategic preferences in cyberspace rests on the material and strategic factors that shape state behavior. This, however, is derived from the actions of established cyber powers. Given the material resources required to effectively operate in this environment and repeated interactions that form the boundaries of accepted behavior, the literature does not adequately explain the emergence of strategic preferences among novice actors. The article posits that these are not exclusively the function of either the material or strategic factors. Instead, strategic culture features prominently in the selection of strategic preferences that shape state behavior in cyberspace.