Security Cooperation Research Articles

The Role of Russia and China in the Confrontation with the United States

The present article analyzes the interstate rivalry between the United States and China, as well as Russia's role in international relations in general. The study touches upon several key aspects, including the evolution of U.S.-China relations, the current crisis in bilateral relations, and the strategic interaction between Russia and China against the expansion of the United States and the collective West. The article focuses on the possibility of a direct military clash between the U.S. and China and analyzes the likelihood of Russia's involvement in such a conflict. The aim of the study was to analyze U.S.-China contradictions and the role of Russia and China in potential and actual conflicts involving Western countries. The author draws several important conclusions. First, the successful actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine undermine the plans of the U.S. and the West, leading to attempts to "freeze" the conflict and restore Ukraine's military potential. Second, tensions in the Indo-Pacific region and the strengthening of alliances directed against China reinforce the need for Russia and the PRC to come closer together. Third, mutual support and security cooperation between Russia and China are key to ensuring stability on their common border and the formation of a just world order. The author calls for increased joint efforts between Russia and China within the framework of international organizations such as the SCO, CSTO, and BRICS to ensure security and stability in Greater Eurasia.

The USA and the Ideological Principles of NATO Policy in the Black Sea Region

The paper examines the role of the United States of America (USA) in shaping the ideological principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) policy in the Black Sea region. While NATO's cooperation programs with Black Sea countries and the clash of interests between NATO and Russia in this region have been widely discussed, less attention has been paid to the USA's contribution as NATO's leading member state to the alliance's ideological tenets in regions with high conflict potential. This analysis explores the interplay between the USA's conceptual policy framework towards the Black Sea region and its littoral states, as evaluated in the USA's National Security Strategies of 2015, 2017, and 2022, and the ideological principles of NATO's policy in the Black Sea region. A discourse analysis of official documents from both the USA and NATO is applied. The article focuses on the period since the 2014 change in the legal status of Crimea and Sevastopol, a time marked by increased USA and NATO patrols in the Black Sea and expanded NATO security cooperation with Ukraine and Georgia. The author concludes that there is a direct correlation between the USA's ideological perception of the Black Sea region as part of its European policy and NATO's ideological incorporation of the region into the Euro-Atlantic security sphere. The United States promotes ideological principles supporting the development of democratic institutions in Black Sea countries and freedom of navigation, competing with Russia for the region's transit potential. NATO's adherence to the ideological principle of protecting democratic states and supporting the USA's stance on freedom of navigation furthers the United States' interests in deepening economic, military, and political cooperation with the littoral states while maintaining its leadership role.

Trusting neighbours? Public perceptions on civil defence cooperation across the Nordics

This article zooms in on the pre-conditions on the citizens’ level for deeper Nordic cooperation on civil defence matters. Historical ties, Nordic security cooperation, high-trusting citizens and the fact that all five Nordic states now are members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) speak in favour of increased cooperation on civil defence. Still, the experiences from the Covid-19 pandemic with different strategies, diverging policies and closed borders, as well as heated exchanges of views, provide us with contradicting expectations. Based on a unique dataset with over 11,000 Nordic respondents, we address these mixed expectations and study the trust of the Nordic citizens in both their respective government’s civil defence preparedness and the citizens’ preferences regarding Nordic and other forms of international cooperation in this area. The results show a significant variation of trust in the civil preparedness of national governments (Finland highest trust, Sweden lowest trust). The variation returns in the desire for deeper international cooperation with considerably lower level of support for enhanced Nordic cooperation among the Danish respondents and strong support for such cooperation among the Finns, Norwegians and Swedes. Hence, our results indicate a potential for enhanced cooperation among some Nordics, but not all.

Military security in the Arctic: New threats to Russia

In recent years, the military and political landscape in the Arctic has changed significantly. This region has been rapidly losing the status of a ‘zone for peace and cooperation’, turning into an arena of increasingly intense interstate rivalry. The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO became a landmark event in the evolution of the military and political situation in the Arctic. This article attempts to identify the causes and driving forces behind these processes, as well as to assess the threats they pose to Russia’s national security. In the first section the authors argue that the NATO countries under the pretext of the growing hybrid threat from the Russian Federation have themselves launched an active information campaign in the spirit of hybrid warfare aimed at demonizing Russia and enforcing on public a Cold War-style black-and-white picture of reality as a ‘zero-sum game’. Moreover, the authors emphasize that this anti-Russian campaign began long before the aggravation of the ‘Ukrainian crisis’. As such, it reflects the American elites’ awareness of the growing decline in the U.S. influence and the erosion of the ‘rules-based order’. The second section examines the specific steps taken by the United States and its allies in order to build up their military and political potential in the Arctic and accelerate the militarization of the region. Special attention is paid to the bilateral agreements on security cooperation between the United States and Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. According to these agreements, Washington was able to deploy personnel, equipment and weapons in these countries on a permanent basis and conduct military exercises. In these conditions, the main threats to Russia’s military security in the Arctic, according to the authors, include: deployment of the U.S. / NATO military infrastructure and troops in the region; the formation of an anti-Russian bloc of Scandinavian states under the control of the alliance; modernization of the Arctic powers’ armed forces; intensification of naval activities of NATO countries in the Arctic seas. In general, the military-strategic situation in the Arctic has already deteriorated significantly with regard to the national interests of the Russian Federation. However, the authors stress that both the current situation in the region and possible scenarios for its future development cannot be assessed in isolation from the general crisis of international relations, focusing solely on regional aspects of security. Apart from the Arctic, tensions are growing in other regions of the world, which also requires the West to allocate there more resources in order to maintain its influence.

The Warsaw coordination centre – international radio counterintelligence cooperation of the former European socialist countries

ABSTRACT This article looks back to the Cold War years in describing the international radio counterintelligence cooperation of the internal state security services of the formerly socialist European countries. The technical equipment for collecting and transmitting information from other countries was valorised in a context in which borders played a divisive role, especially in the first half of the Cold War period. Western secret service ‘agents’ in Eastern Bloc territory received information from their intelligence centres via secret radio devices, and often sent back information via encrypted radio transmissions. By the 1950s, the socialist countries had developed their own state security organizations and radio interception capabilities. From 1955 on, this was performed in cooperation with the other socialist countries under the coordination of the so-called Warsaw Coordination Centre. The aim of this article is to describe, based on Hungarian archival sources, the little-known inter-state security cooperation that existed from 1955 to the end of the Cold War, and to contribute to the historical understanding of the Eastern Bloc Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) activities.

A new quantum solution to blind millionaires’ problem without an honest third party

The quantum blind millionaires’ (QBM) problem is an expanded version of the millionaires’ problem in a quantum environment. For any two sets with different members, the QBM problem represents the quantum solution of the private summation in each set and the private comparison of the results simultaneously. During it, the secrets of any participant should be protected. As a new topic in quantum secure multiparty computation (QSMC), current solutions to QBM problems usually require an honest third party to resist some potential attack strategies. However, the assumptions will affect their applicability in practical cooperative security systems. In this paper, we propose a new solution to the quantum blind millionaires’ (QBM) problem without the help of an honest third party for the first time. In our solution, the shift operations are applied to the d-dimensional 2-particle entangled states to encode the secrets of the participants. According to our analysis, the proposed solution can effectively resist typical internal and external attacks by applying the detection methods generated by the participants. We hope that the research will make positive developments for QSMC.

Indo-japanese Relations:from "Spiritual to Special Strategic and Global Partnership "

This article analyses the multifaceted dimensions of New Delhi-Tokyo bilateral relationship in the 21st Century, encompassing the political & diplomatic, economic, defense & security and cultural cooperation. With the signing of a ‘peace treaty’ between India & Japan in 1952, the diplomatic relations between the two nations have been established. Both nations have close economic ties since 1991. They have strong defense and security cooperation since 2008. In the recent years the defense exchanges between the two nations have gained strength because of the issues of peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific Region. They have also very rich cultural linkages based on Buddhism since 4th Century A.D. Significantly, the recent meeting of the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi with his newly appointed Japanese Counterpart Mr. Shigeru Ishiba on the sidelines of the 21st ASEAN-India Summit and the 19th East Asia Summit held at Vientiane, Lao PDR from 10th-11th October 2024 has further strengthened the bilateral cooperation between the two the trusted and strategic partners India and Japan.

Co-Operation in Judicial, Legal, Security, and Socio-Economic Matters: The Non-extradition of Italian Terrorists from France, Between Political and Legal Issues

Co-Operation in Judicial, Legal, Security, and Socio-Economic Matters: The Non-extradition of Italian Terrorists from France, Between Political and Legal Issues

Navigating strategic waters: India-US foundational defence agreements and the quest for strategic autonomy

ABSTRACT This paper examines the evolving strategic partnership between India and the United States, particularly through the lens of foundational defence agreements. Focusing on key agreements such as the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), the study evaluates their implications for defence collaboration and India’s strategic autonomy. The analysis highlights how these agreements have strengthened both bilateral security cooperation and regional collaboration within the Indo-Pacific, while also opening avenues for new areas of defence cooperation and spurring new initiatives in India-US ties. The paper discusses how Modi's pragmatic reinterpretation of strategic autonomy aligns with India's national interests amidst escalating geopolitical challenges, particularly from China. By deepening the India-US strategic partnership and bolstering India's defence capabilities, these agreements are reshaping regional security dynamics in the Indo-Pacific. Adopting a customised realist model tailored for this study, the paper highlights Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in strengthening the bilateral relationship and expanding India's strategic options, alongside structural factors, such as the rise of an assertive China, which have shaped India-US security ties and led to the signing of foundational agreements.

Minilateralism and pathways to institutional progression: alliance formation or cooperative security governance?

ABSTRACT Even as essential definitional and conceptual issues related to ‘minilateralism’ remain unresolved, conjecture has arisen as to the future trajectories of established institutions, such as the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD), AUKUS, and the Quad. – Could they evolve into formal military alliances over time, or serve as the foundation of a new organisation aimed at providing regional security governance? To systematically evaluate such contingencies this article traverses a set of interrelated conceptual issues relating to minilateral institutionalisation. It seeks to differentiate minilaterals in terms of their ‘hybridity’ both in structural composition and functionality, and ascertain what this implies for their institutional progression. This process assists us in identifying on what grounds minilaterals might potentially evolve into a more formalised institutional paradigm – either (i) a military alliance or (ii) a cooperative security governance organisation. This foregoing conceptual apparatus is then brought to bear of on the case studies above to draw out clues as to their prospective institutional development pathways. The article concludes that, while such putative institutional transformations remain conceivable, in none of the cases is a particular pathway preordained. Instead, minilaterals may simply continue to adapt within the parameters of their present institutional boundaries.

Exploring the Viability and Implications of a NATO-like Defense Cooperation Among Turkic States

This paper explores the viability of a NATO-like defense cooperation among the Turkic states. While several challenges such as divergent security perceptions, differing foreign policy orientations, and the institutions’ limited capacities must be overcome, there are also several catalysts that could provide impetus for new security cooperation arrangements. Türkiye’s military capabilities as the only member of NATO in the region is particularly important. Furthermore, an ongoing imbalance in Armenia’s favor, supports the establishment of a security cooperation framework among the Turkic states. The developments in Ukraine and Crimea point to the necessity of a collective defense arrangement amid an increasingly insecure environment for the Turkic states. While initially beneficial, the OSCE has gradually and mostly lost its credibility in the southern Caucasus. The unequal implementation of its own principles and tactics employed in conflict resolution have inevitably led to a loss of trust from the parties involved. Meanwhile, it has ceased to analyze arms control developments in the region, despite UN Security Council Resolutions recognizing their regional dimension. Furthermore, the inadequate response to Armenia’s non-compliance with the above resolution damaged the OSCE’s credibility. Today, the Turkic states are left with few operational security cooperation options. The UN is far too inefficient and does not even have the legal framework to resolve any post-Soviet disputes. The CIS, which exists in the Caucasus in both political and military forms, lacks regional capacity and legitimacy. The GUAM organization created in 1997 at the instigation of the US and the West to pacify the edges of “the Russian World,” has been rendered operationally void. Overall, this paper explores cooperation strategies, assesses key institutional and political challenges, and discusses implications and future developments exploring the viability of a NATO-like defense cooperation among the Turkic states.

UK Labour Party Leaders' Attitudes to Conventional Threats to National Security, 2023-2024

Introduction. The article focuses on the securitisation of power threats in the public speeches of the UK Labour Party leaders (Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Defence Minister John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy) during the 2023-2024 election campaign. An attempt has been made to highlight the commonalities and peculiarities in the approach of the current and previous British governments to countering the main threats to national security. Materials and methods. The paper combines qualitative and quantitative approaches: a critical content analysis of sources and discourse analysis in an electoral context (using data from sociological surveys) are conducted, while the frequency of word usage in the public speeches of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is analysed using the tools of quantitative analysis of big data (R programming language). The methodological basis of the work is the theory of securitisation proposed by the Copenhagen School of the theory of international relations.Research results. It is concluded that the main change in London's foreign policy after Labour's victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections will be the prioritisation of security cooperation with European states. Labour Party leaders do not question the need for ‘dual containment’ of Russia and China, but they give the ‘China threat’ secondary importance: there are noticeable differences within the party on this issue. On the other hand, Labour's position on the ‘special relationship’ with the United States is characterised by a steady continuity with the Conservative government's approach. The need to deepen cooperation in Euro-Atlantic security structures (primarily NATO) and continental formats (EI2, JEF) is stated.Discussion and conclusion. On the basis of qualitative examination of policy documents and statements of the Labour Party leaders, as well as quantitative analysis of big data, conclusions are drawn about the key elements of potential continuity and variability in the foreign policy of London before and after the parliamentary elections on July 4, 2024. The results of the work can be useful in forecasting changes in the foreign policy of Great Britain after the victory of Labour in the parliamentary elections of 2024. The theoretical importance of the work lies in the fact that the article proposes a new methodology for quantitative analysis of the foreign policy of the UK.

The fallacy of uti possidetis juris: transboundary fishing in disputed maritime boundaries as a threat to Africa’s peace and security

ABSTRACT Africa’s oceans and seas and their resources are crucial for the economic and food security of Coastal States and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). However, sustaining these contributions is undermined by depleting resources and other security threats at sea. Given the transboundary nature of oceans resources and the threats that pervade them, maritime boundary disputes further complicate the situation, by making maritime security cooperation difficult for African countries, especially against illegal fishing. Our transdisciplinary paper draws evidence from legal, security, and development literature, policy documents, and expert insights to highlight the impact of maritime boundary disputes on maritime cooperation and security. Our argument is threefold: first, the principle of uti possidetis juris has resulted in artificial boundaries, propelling maritime boundary tensions and, arguably, in some cases, inflaming them. Second, delimitation exercises, often the outcome of applying the uti possidetis juris principle, limit opportunities for cooperation in managing shared resources and security. Third, irrespective of boundary disputes, the ambulatory nature of fish forces fishers to encroach into neighbouring waters. This paper concludes that addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach to oceans governance, acknowledging the transboundary nature of threats and promoting joint management arrangements as a mechanism for settling boundary disputes.

Deterrence and Missed Opportunities: Insights from the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The paper critiques the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a nuclear-armed alliance, exploring whether enlargement provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the role of deterrence in conflict escalation. Despite NATO's efforts to bolster Ukraine’s defenses without direct intervention, questions remain about the effectiveness of its deterrence strategy. Public opinion shifts in Sweden and Finland toward NATO membership after Russia’s actions highlight broader implications for European security. The paper also assesses the non-implementation of the Minsk agreements, exploring missed opportunities for conflict resolution and peacebuilding. By examining these dynamics, it contributes to debates on NATO's future, the efficacy of nuclear deterrence, and the prospects for cooperative security amidst escalating global tensions.

‘Pooling and Sharing’ and ‘Permanent Structured Cooperation’ as the Current EU’s Defense and Security Integration Modes

ABSTRACT When an urgent response in international relations is needed, the EU institutions and Member States’ governments face a deficiency of effective and practical mechanisms in security cooperation. Developing autonomous programs and concepts that address this dilemma, preventing duplication of endeavors and investments, and maximizing cost-effectiveness by broadening military-political consultations on all issues of common concern is challenging. This article analyses the path and logic of EU security integration in the recent decade. In this context, the origins and goals of the pooling and sharing concept are essential to analyze the continuity of security integration, where the Council’s introduction of Permanent Structured Cooperation in defense and security is an important step forward. Therefore, this article will investigate whether and how P&S and PESCO have been related and complemented, even though both differ in the prism of aims, logic, decision-making processes, and funding. Due to budgetary throwbacks in recent decades and the war in Ukraine intensified after February 2022, EU Member States’ governments might evaluate their approach to the level of engagement in common security programs.

Türkiye’s Security Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Constructivist Analysis

Türkiye’s comprehensive, pragmatic, multi-dimensional, and multi-stakeholder strategy towards Africa is commendable for adopting a collaborative approach that aligns well with the region’s needs. This study aims to explore Türkiye’s security relations in Sub-Saharan Africa through a constructivist perspective, focusing on the sub-regions of East Africa, West Africa, and the Sahel Belt. The research employs a qualitative methodology, drawing on official documents, academic literature, reports from international organizations, and discourse analysis to examine Türkiye’s security policy in the region. Türkiye’s security cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa extends beyond mere military ties, encompassing a holistic strategy that supports regional peace and stability. By enhancing and strengthening these efforts, Türkiye significantly bolsters its standing in Sub-Saharan Africa and contributes to regional security architecture.

Позиции Республики Корея и Японии по институционализации военно-политического сотрудничества в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе

The article analyzes the current stance of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan on the institutionalization of defense cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, provides the assessment of the prospects for the US-ROK-Japan triangle institutionalization, as well as the assessment of the prospects for the possible accession of Japan and South Korea to the AUKUS agreement. Drawing from the strategic documents of Tokyo and Seoul in the field of security, as well as joint statements and other official information materials of the United States and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, the author comes to the conclusion that the announced "Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework" of the United States – South Korea – Japan will be poorly formalized, and the main area of cooperation within this framework will be the exchange of intelligence data and monitoring of the military activity of the DPRK. The Memorandum of Cooperation concluded in July 2024 has primarily an ideological significance and is intended to create a precedent for formalizing military cooperation in a trilateral format. The potential entry of the ROK and Japan into AUKUS also has its problems. Through the license-free AUKUS arms trade ecosystem, Japan potentially can be able to develop its own defense industry and gain a foothold as an arms exporter. On the contrary, for South Korea, which is already an established exporter of military equipment and weapons, this would be a potential risk and the possibility of losing its acquired positions in Australia and other markets. Nevertheless, the prospect for both parties joining AUKUS is real, and cooperation within this multilateral format can also be of a weakly formalized nature, reduced to work on a number of joint projects, mainly in high-tech areas with the ultimate goal of developing common technological and legal standards.

Coalition of the opting – Part 2: Counterfactually assessing the theory on the GUAM-cooperation

In this article, we test the theory of “The Coalition of the Opting” by counterfactually including a paragraph in the Yalta Charter, regulating the security cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, welcoming them to develop both call and put options between the member states. The counterfactual Charter is applied to three examples of Russian armed aggression: the war on Georgia in 2008, the war on Ukraine in 2014, and the full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022. Although the application of the counterfactually designed options most likely would not have altered the outcome of these aggressions, our findings suggest that the very existence of a coalition of the opting nevertheless could have compelled Russia to think twice before attacking. Arguably, the additional time could have enabled both the coalition and the Western community to undertake counteractions that factually now were absent.

A Secure Cooperative Image Super-Resolution Transmission with Decode-and-Forward Relaying over Rayleigh Fading Channels

In addition to susceptibility to performance degradation due to hardware malfunctions and environmental influences, wireless image transmission poses risks of information exposure to eavesdroppers. This paper delves into the image communications within wireless relay networks (WRNs) and proposes a secure cooperative relaying (SCR) protocol over Rayleigh fading channels. In this protocol, a source node (referred to as Alice) transmits superior-resolution (SR) images to a destination node (referred to as Bob) with the assistance of a mediating node (referred to as Relay) operating in decode-and-forward mode, all while contending with the presence of an eavesdropper (referred to as Eve). In order to conserve transmission bandwidth, Alice firstly reduces the size of the original SR images before transmitting them to Relay and Bob. Subsequently, random linear network coding (RLNC) is employed by both Alice and Relay on the downscaled poor-resolution (PR) images to obscure the original images from Eve, thereby bolstering the security of the image communications. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SCR protocol surpasses both secure relaying transmission without a direct link and secure direct transmission without relaying links. Additionally, a slight reduction in image quality can be achieved by increasing the scaling factor for saving transmission bandwidth. Furthermore, the results highlight the SCR protocol’s superior effectiveness at Bob’s end when compared to Eve’s, which is due to Eve’s lack of access to the RLNC coefficient matrices and reference images utilised by Alice and Relay in the RLNC process. Finally, the evaluation of reference images, relay allocations and diversity reception over Rayleigh fading channels confirms the effectiveness of the SCR protocol for secure image communications in the WRNs.

Tracing bilateral security cooperation: the asymmetric deterioration of US–Venezuelan defense relations

Tracing bilateral security cooperation: the asymmetric deterioration of US–Venezuelan defense relations