It is the purpose of this manuscript to evaluate the existing status of U.S.-Russian cooperation and the prospects for future joint security ventures in the region. In the process, a second related major rationale will be to assess the coalition's successes and failures in meeting the jihadist threat in Afghanistan. To put the Afghanistan Question in perspective, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan will be assessed along with the U.S. reaction to it, and subsequent events like the civil war that followed the collapse of the communist government in Kabul, the rise of the Taliban, and its association with al-Qaeda that led to the 9/11 strikes on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Special attention will be devoted to the support that Russia provided the United States in the wake of 9/11 and, more recently, its role in advancing U.S. goals in America's "longest war." Toward this end, the performance of the Obama administration's counterinsurgency (COIN) operations will be explored through three scenarios.
About the Author: RICHARD J. KRICKUS is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Mary Washington and has held the Oppenheimer Chair for Warfighting Strategy at the U.S. Marine Corps University. Previously he cofounded The National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs in Washington, DC, and in the early 1970s began conducting research on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' "nationalities question." In this connection, he began to write about popular unrest among the people of Lithuania. In 1990, Sajudis, the Lithuanian popular front movement, invited him to serve as an international monitor for the first democratic election conducted in Soviet Lithuania. Dr. Krickus has offered testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has lectured at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, the Polish Foreign Ministry, the European Commission, and other domestic and foreign venues on the Soviet Union/Russia, the Baltic countries, NATO, and Kaliningrad. He has published widely on these issues for academic and policy-oriented journals as well as various newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal Europe. For 8 years Dr. Krickus wrote a column on world affairs for Lietuvos Rytas, Lithuania's leading national daily. He has appeared as a commentator on Soviet-Russian affairs on U.S. radio and television on numerous occasions. He is the author of a number of books, including: Pursuing the American Dream; The Superpowers in Crisis; Showdown: The Lithuanian Rebellion and the Break-Up of the Soviet Empire; The Kaliningrad Question; Iron Troikas: The New Threat from the East; and Medvedev's Plan: Giving Russia a Voice but Not a Veto in a New European Security System. Dr. Krickus holds a B.A. in government from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. in international affairs from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in comparative politics from Georgetown University.