Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The Cold War may have ended in 1991 but Russia remains a prominent foreign policy concern and finds itself in the forefront of issues facing the new administration.The extent of the threat that Russia poses to the United States is sharply debated in Washington and warrants a robust analysis. This paper assesses the extent that Russia threatens U.S. national security interests, with an emphasis placed on ideological, economic, military, and political interests. This will be accomplished in three phases: identify U.S. national security interests, identify what threats Russia poses to those interests, and finally identify the ends, ways and means that will protect U.S. national security goals.

Through this analysis, we conclude that Russia does pose a threat to U.S. national security interests. We therefore make recommendations as to how the United States should act in response to these threats. The U.S. national security strategy is designed to preserve U.S. hegemony, protect our democratic institutions, increase economic prosperity, and most importantly, protect the homeland. For this reason, we must strengthen the U.S. understanding of Russia as a threat and respond accordingly. This paper employs an ends, ways, means analysis for each national security interest identified. Ends should be understood as the actions that must be taken in order to preserve our interests, ways are the strategies that should be employed to achieve that action, and means are the specific assets that will be used to execute that strategy. This national security strategy takes a broad and bipartisan understanding of the issues surrounding Russia and national security, employs a robust analysis of those issues, and offers specific policy recommendations that should be pursued to ensure U.S. national security.