“To be treated as a great power,” according to Dr. Jeffrey Mankoff, adjunct fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, who spoke at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Sept. 14. He said that if one looks at the statements of Russian leaders, they emphasize Russia’s role as an independent actor, a great power with responsibility for affairs of its own. He said that Russia quickly diverged from a presumptive path toward Western-style democracy, noting, for instanace, that in 1993, then Russian leader Boris Yeltsin sent the military against Parliament when it would not bend to his policies. When Russia offered help to the US after the 9/11 terrorist attack, Russia felt the US failed to recognize it as a great power in an equal strategic partnership.
The Air Force is shoring up its cyber defenses both on and off base for critical infrastructure such as water and electrical power, and industry experts are calling for more, even specialized, dedicated microgrids offsite to support USAF operations in case of a total blackout caused by cyberattacks.
