American-Russian alliance. Persons and Centers

Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies

Institute securely occupies a leading place among research institutes, having become a «think-tank», a community of renowned specialists pursuing studies on the USA and Canada . ISKRAN is a main center providing recommendations for high-ranking state bodies in the matters of home, foreign and military policy and the problems of restructuring the Russian national economy.

Institute's Departments

Military-strategic research bears an interdisciplinary character and is closely linked with the practical tasks of defining Russia 's strategic interests in the world. Scholars of the Institute contributed to the military and strategic research in close cooperation with professional military. This area of research includes American approaches to use of military force, policy in the field of disarmament and limitations of arms — both conventional and nuclear.

Military and political studies play a unique role in the work of ISKRAN. It is an interdisciplinary area of research and is directly connected to Russian stand on issues of military and political developments in the world. Specialists in this field study political role of the military, military doctrines and concepts, international aspects of different military actions, NATO expansions problems, and the means to promote stability. Special attention at the Institute is given to the analysis of US foreign policy and its role on the world arena. ISKRAN scholars study American political course in different regions of the world, political aspects of Russian-American relations, American foreign policy concepts and doctrines.

Research in the area of domestic politics includes analysis of a broad set of issues. Special attention is paid to the study of American political system, social basis of the political process, interior domestic policy of the US , public consciousness and American political culture.

Economic research of the US economic system includes analysis of its mechanism; trends and perspectives in the development of scientific and technical progress in the US ; prospects of the American economy. Researchers study the system of global economic relations, the role of American economy in this system. Special focus is made on the Russian-American trade and economic relations.

Department of Canada conducts a complex research of Canadian domestic and foreign policy, Russian-Canadian relations in different fields, Canada 's economic development and place in the world division of labor.

School of World Politics was founded under the ISKRAN's auspices in 1999.

News

01:11 PM, September 3 Middle East peace talks begin in Washington

02:03 PM, September 2 U.S. criticizes Russia for arrests during rallies on Aug. 31

11:08 AM, September 2 Three more GLONASS satellites put into orbit

11:06 AM, September 1 Iraqi mission over, U.S. to address domestic problems - Obama

12:35 PM, August 31 Barak to head to Moscow to prevent missile sale to Syria

Geopolitics

WWII and the burden of memory

Konstantin Bogdanov

The Second World War formally ended on September 2, 1945 with Japan’s surrender. There is a popular saying that a war is over when the last soldiers killed are buried. With WWII, however, things aren’t so simple.

The Second World War was a beast born of WWI, known in Europe as the Great War. Some alternative historians see them as two phases in the same war, separated by a fragile truce. This seems logical: For thirty years, the world tried to destroy itself in trenches and gas chambers, at logging sites and in slums blighted by misery and unemployment. It measured the shapes of skulls and class distinctions, and meticulously calculated the percentage of Jewish or Japanese blood in people destined for death camps or internment camps.

Security

North-Atlantic post-soviet alliance

Vladimir Mukhin

The Commonwealth is entering a period of geopolitical struggle with NATO and the United States for control over the territory of the erstwhile Soviet Union and nearby countries. The Alliance mounted an energetic campaign to enlist the services of post- Soviet republics in performance of its own military-political missions in the region. Russia’s geopolitical interests are in danger. Outperformed at every turn, the international structures it established in the region (CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization or CSTO and Shanghai Cooperation Organization) become virtual.

Exercise Peace Mission’2010 of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is to be launched in Kazakhstan on September 10. There appear to be no particular reason to run the exercise save for the necessity to show that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is still there.

Business

Fears grow over global food supply

Javier Blas, Courtney Weaver, Simon Mundy

Russia announced a 12-month extension of its grain export ban on Thursday, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08 which spread through developing countries dependent on imports.

The announcement by Vladimir Putin came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage, and riots in Mozambique left seven dead.

::Persons and Centers

Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies