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Birgerson, Susanne

Abstract
The world has changed with the demise of the Cold War. It has gone from a bipolar world that was dominated by two strategic powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, to a unipolar world that is dominated by the United States. Nineteen-eighty-nine saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event that strategic analysts did not foresee. During this period and afterwards, relations between the two super powers became more cordial.
Perestroika, which refers to national rebuilding as it relates to a free economy, became the flavour of the day. Foreign countries saw the ex-Warsaw Pact economies, and specifically that of Russia, ripe for investment as they believed the only direction the economy could go was up.
Time has revealed a different story. Russia’s political stability is tied to its current leadership and has been said to be tied to the heart beat of President Yeltsin. Its economic house is unstable. The lack of currency, no effective industrial base, and black marketeering could possibly lead to the country’s collapse. To obtain currency, Russia has become the world’s largest proliferator of weapons. The military has been analysed as being ineffective. Military equipment is deteriorating, and there is a lack of leadership at the highest levels, yet Russia still poses a large nuclear threat to the world. The collapse of Russia’s economy could provide an opportunity for the military to seize control and embark the country on a road back to the cold war days. Canada has a vision of a clean environment, and world stability without the proliferation of weapons. It is advocated that Russia’s current strategic policies, specifically its foreign, political, economic and military policies pose a significant threat to Canada’s security.

Published inBlog