On February 28th U.S. President Donald Trump made the fateful decision to initiate war with Iran. The combined American-Israeli attacks led to the decapitation of the Islamic Republic and Iranian retaliatory strikes against U.S. bases across the region, hitting at eight Middle Eastern states. While the U.S. and Israeli are engaged in a short war of choice, Iran is engaged in an existential war and will make it as long as it needs to fight off the threat. Russia will enjoy some short-term gains from the Iranian crisis, but it has a strong interest and some levers to shape and to help end the conflict along with its chief ally, China. The war could spill out of control in untold, unimaginable ways. Neither Moscow nor Beijing have an interest in a regional or global war or the defeat of its strategic ally. They will support Teheran to the extent possible without provoking the eccentric, unpredictable American president, while seeking ways to end the war as soon as possible. The war threatens the US-Russian rapprochement and Ukrainian peace ostensibly sought by Trump.
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NEW BOOK
EUROPE BOOKS, 2022
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RECENT BOOKS
MCFARLAND BOOKS, 2021
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MCFARLAND BOOKS, 2018
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About the Author –
Gordon M. Hahn, Ph.D., is an Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, www.canalyt.com. Websites: Russian and Eurasian Politics, gordonhahn.com and gordonhahn.academia.edu
Dr. Hahn is the author of the new book: Russian Tselostnost’: Wholeness in Russian Thought, Culture, History, and Politics (Europe Books, 2022). He has authored five previous, well-received books: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin (McFarland, 2021); Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West, and the “New Cold War” (McFarland, 2018); The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland, 2014), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), and Russia’s Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, 1985-2000 (Transaction, 2002). He also has published numerous think tank reports, academic articles, analyses, and commentaries in both English and Russian language media.
Dr. Hahn taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia and was a senior associate and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group.