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2 months ago | 
cfr.org | Heidi Crebo-Rediker |Liana Fix |Thomas Graham |Michael O’Hanlon |Paul B. Stares
Just over one week into the second Trump administration, Thomas Graham provides a roadmap for bringing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table; Liana Fix underscores the importance of including Ukraine’s European allies to ensure the best possible outcome in cease-fire negotiations; Michael O’Hanlon and Paul B.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
cfr.org | Thomas Graham
Thomas Graham is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. More From Our Experts The stunning fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has upended Russia’s policy in the Middle East.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
russiamatters.org | Jo Inge Bekkevold |Paul Saunders |Harry Stevens |Thomas Graham
As Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts the first summit of BRICS+ in Tatarstan’s capital Kazan on Oct. 22–24, it has motivated me to update my comparison of this group of countries with the G-7 in terms of components of national power as of early 2024. This comparison has reaffirmed my earlier findings that BRICS has overtaken the G-7—which some in the former want to position as a rival to the latter—in key components such as economy and demography. But can BRICS put that advantage to use?
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Aug 5, 2024 | 
cfr.org | Thomas Graham
Could Russia have put itself on a steady course toward a consolidated democracy in the 1990s? At the time, Russian leaders vowed that was their goal, and Western leaders offered their support. Yet Boris Yeltsin’s Russia gave way to Vladimir Putin’s, which has traced a path toward ever greater authoritarianism. What went wrong?
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
cfr.org | Thomas Graham
After the 2013–14 Revolution of Dignity, which overthrew a deeply corrupt, Russian-backed regime, Ukraine declared its ambition to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community of free-market democracies. In 2019, Ukraine amended its constitution to state that its strategic objectives included membership in the European Union (EU) and NATO. Ukraine made little progress in realizing those ambitions before Russia’s massive invasion in February 2022.
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
cfr.org | Thomas Graham
SummaryAs U.S.-Russia relations scrape the depths of Cold War antagonism, the promise of an enduring strategic partnership that beguiled American administrations during the first post-Soviet decades increasingly appears to have been false from the start. Why did American leaders persist in pursuing it, even as Russia grew increasingly authoritarian and bolder in its efforts to thwart American policy?
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Dec 24, 2023 | 
foreignaffairs.com | Thomas Graham |David Sacks
Our Editors’ Top Picks From Print and Web February 1, 2023 February 1, 2023How Russians Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the WarThe Pliant Majority Sustaining Putin’s Rule Andrei Kolesnikov February 2, 2023 February 2, 2023The Long Twilight of the Islamic RepublicIran’s Transformational Season of Protest Ali Vaez March 22, 2023 March 22, 2023A New Order in the Middle East?
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Dec 12, 2023 | 
foreignaffairs.com | Atossa Araxia Abrahamian |Kristin Surak |Thomas Graham |Elliott Abrams
In This Review In This Review The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires In October 2023, an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Network revealed that a former Afghan intelligence chief accused of human rights violations, Saddam Hussein’s top nuclear scientist, and a high-ranking colonel under the Libyan despot Muammar al-Qaddafi all had something curious in common: they were compatriots of the Commonwealth of Dominica.
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Oct 15, 2023 | 
politico.com | Thomas Graham
Win, Lose or Draw in Ukraine, Russia Will Survive. We Need to Be Ready. It’s time to prepare for a future that includes Russia as an authoritarian and expansionist rival. Russian servicemen during a military parade in Moscow on May 9, 2023. Even when seemingly weak, Russia has an uncanny ability to make its presence felt on the global stage.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
foreignaffairs.com | Thomas Graham |Shannon K. O'Neil |Steven Cook
As the war in Ukraine rages, it is difficult to imagine a constructive relationship between Russia and the West. The prospect is made unlikelier still by the Kremlin’s relentless anti-Western vitriol. Yet even if Russia’s strategic designs are defeated—hardly a sure bet, as the slow, uncertain unfolding of Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive shows—the country is not about to disappear from the global stage.
