Think tank offers double Baltic hybrid thoughts

Take note – story published 7 years ago

The RAND Corporation, a United States think tank, has produced two new reports about the Baltic states, one of which has just been presented to senior Washington decision-makers.

According to RAND's website, a report titled "Deterring Russian Aggression In The Baltic States -- What It Takes To Win," written by David A Shlapak was "presented before the House [of Representatives] Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces on March 1, 2017."

It describes NATO’s current position as "woefully inadequate to resist a Russian attack on the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania."

"NATO needs to be able to stay in the game. The minimum requirement for deterrence by denial along NATO’s frontier with Russia is not to offer Moscow a vision of an easy strategic victory—the chance to register a fait accompli against minimal resistance," the report advised US lawmakers.

It can be read and downloaded HERE.

A second report, written by Andrew Radin and titled "Hybrid Warfare In The Baltics" can also be downloaded HERE if you are so inclined. 

It looks at the potential for the use by Russia of "hybrid" warfare tactics in various guises and rates their likely effectiveness.

The key conclusions are that the use of the Baltics' Russian-speaking population by the Kremlin is much less realistic than many observers assume and that conventional rather than unconventional warfare is where Russia holds a superior hand at the moment.

"The United States and NATO should pursue the development of a more sophisticated and subtle strategic communication campaign, beginning with support for Russian-language television stations backed by the Baltic country governments," the report advises.

The RAND Corporation describes itself as "a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous."

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