Russia in the National Security Strategy 2013

Abstract

Russia is in relative terms, a marginal actor for Spain, a fact which is easily understandable given both the country´s geographic position and its limited historical ties. It seems thus reasonable that the National Security Strategy 2013 does not devote much attention to Russia, and that it adopts both NATO´s and the EU´s cooperative discourse, as found in the strategies by the two organizations. We may state that this condition is achieved both in the strategy of 2011 and in that of 2013 which is analyzed here. However, in spite of finding the limited space devoted to Russia as justified, it is hardly understandable that the latest strategy unnecessarily hardens its stance while it does not introduce any clear proper contribution. The Spanish strategy limits herself to expose in order of importance each of the world regions, trying to span too much and failing to link the strategy with both Spain´s interests and the threats to its national security strategy. Meanwhile, it forgets to mention the bilateral strategic relation with Russia and does not set the basis for overcoming the tendency to restrict Spain-Russia relations to mere punctual initiatives - As the 2011 "Dual Year" or the Strategic Association itself -. The shortcomings show that Russia is not seen as one of the long-term strategic vectors of our foreign and security policy.