Dear Friends of Saratoga,
Please join us in celebrating our first anniversary as we share a brief summary of our work over the past year and extend our sincere thanks to those who have generously supported our activities.
We reflect on this progress at a pivotal moment for Eurasia. As negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine intensify, Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War is poised to enter its fifth year—lasting longer than the Soviet Union’s war against Nazi Germany.
Just as the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 marked a decisive turning point in the American Revolutionary War, Ukraine is engaged in a struggle that will shape the future of Euro-Atlantic security. Over the past year, The Saratoga Foundation has organized multiple online events and partnered with leading institutions to monitor key developments—from Operation Spiderweb to Russian attacks on Romanian territory inside the Danube and its implications for regional security along NATO’s Eastern Flank.
During this period, Saratoga has experienced sustained month-over-month growth. Our collaborations with European security organizations such as GLOBSEC have expanded our reach, while traffic to our website has doubled. We are encouraged to see our analysis reaching policymakers and experts—from NATO headquarters in Brussels to strategic communities as far away as South Korea.
Looking ahead to 2026, we anticipate new opportunities to deepen our research and expand our visibility, and are grateful for your continued engagement and support.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Key 2025 Highlights
ESTONIA - NARVA STUDY TOUR: MAY 2025
👉From May 16-20, Saratoga President Glen Howard participated in a study trip to Estonia organized by the Estonian Foreign Ministry that included a trip to the flashpoint city of Narva bordering Russia. The delegation included leading thinktank experts, including Wilson Beaver, Heritage Foundation, Samuel Denny, Georgetown University, Peter Doran, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), Jordan Henry, Center for the National Interest, George Noll, German Marshall Fund, and Audrye Wong from the American Enterprise Institute. Narva is considered to be a potential flashpoint on the Estonian border with Russia and is the only functioning border crossing for Russian citizens traveling between Russia and the Baltic states.
GLOBSEC 2025: Prague, Czechia
👉 On June 12, Saratoga Foundation President Glen Howard spoke at the 20th anniversary celebration of GLOBSEC 2025 in Prague, Czechia, where he participated in a panel discussion titled “Military Mobility: NATO’s Road to Readiness on the Eastern Flank”. To watch the full hour-long discussion, please visit the Saratoga Foundation YouTube channel here.
During the panel, he highlighted the strategic significance of Ostrava in his new study, describing the Czech airbase as a potential “mini-Ramstein” that could bolster NATO’s aerial mobility in East Central Europe. Referring to Ostrava as a “new NATO window on the Carpathians,” Mr. Howard emphasized the airfield’s value as a multi-vector logistics hub, vital to strengthening Euro-Atlantic supply routes from East Central Europe to the Black Sea. Afterward, Mr. Howard used the opportunity to present a copy of his report to Czech President Petr Pavel. 👇
AZERBAIJAN STUDY TOUR: Baku - October 2025
👉 From October 3-9, Saratoga President Glen Howard participated in a visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, with eight other foreign policy experts in a five-day visit, meeting with senior Azerbaijani officials to discuss energy issues and cooperation with the United States. Organized by the Caspian Policy Center, the delegation was led by CPC President Efgan Niftiyev. Key participants in the delegation were Heritage Foundation Vice President James Carafano, former US Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands, Chair of the Foreign Policy Initiative at the America First Institute, and Kimberly A. Reed, former Exim Bank President.
RUMSFELD FELLOWS
👉 On October 21, Saratoga President Glen Howard met with the fall 2025 cohort of Rumsfeld Fellows from the American Foreign Policy Council’s Central Asia Caucasus Institute, where he discussed US policies toward Central Asia and the Caucasus and the strategic thinking of former policymakers Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
CONFERENCE ON THE THREE SEAS INITIATIVE (3SI)
👉 On November 13, Saratoga Foundation President Glen Howard moderated a panel organized by Walter Zaryckyj, Executive Director of The Center for US-Ukraine Relations. Speakers included, from left to right: Margarita Assenova, Kateryna Shynkaruk, Agnia Grigas (not pictured), former US Ambassador to Romania Adrian Zuckerman (not pictured), Ray Wojtek (center), and retired General Mark Kimmitt. The forum brought together key think tank policy experts and active or retired government officials to discuss key developments in the Three Seas Initiative effort over the past decade. To watch a video from our panel, please watch here. To see a full video of all the panels held that day, please watch here.
New Saratoga Research Initiatives
👉 The Kremlin and Strategic Failure in the Ukraine War
In August, The Saratoga Foundation launched a new research initiative: The Kremlin and Strategic Failure in the Ukraine War, led by Roger N. McDermott, a Senior Fellow at The Saratoga Foundation. The ground-breaking project explores the systemic weaknesses that led to Russia’s failure in its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Drawing from historical analysis, professional Russian military literature, and exclusive interviews with defense experts and military officers across Europe and Ukraine, this initiative explores the root causes of Moscow’s strategic blunders by examining the major disconnect between Russian military doctrine and operational execution, revealing the enduring obstacles the Kremlin faces in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
👉 The Creeping Sinicization of Russia
Earlier this year, The Saratoga Foundation launched a new research initiative, The Creeping Sinicization of Russia, led by Senior Fellow Dr. Sergey Sukhankin and contributions by long-time Russia expert Paul Goble. With this new initiative, we created a new publication, Kitaizatsia, China in Russia, Newsletter. One of the aims of our project is to examine the strategic impact of the Sinicization of Russia and China’s expanding influence in the Russian Far East and how the Ukraine war has accelerated Russian decline. The latest issue can be found here:
👉 Nationalities at War
Earlier this year, Saratoga launched a new occasional series, Nationalities at War: Non-Ethnic Russians in Putin’s War Against Ukraine, (NAW), examining Russia’s use of non-ethnic Russians in its war against Ukraine. The series explores the strategic implications of the Kremlin’s use of non-Russian nationalities, which have disproportionately borne heavy casualties during the war. To date, the number of Russians killed and wounded has soared to over 1.2 million, more than the size of Russia’s total pre-war army. The series is anchored by Paul Goble, Mairbek Vatchagaev, and Valeriy Dzutsati, and examines the strategic repercussions from Moscow’s heavy reliance on non-ethnic Russians in the war as resentment mounts in the volatile powder keg of the North Caucasus. A second issue was published on October 13, exploring the rise of Putin’s Tabasaran Generals, a small Muslim ethnic group from the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, and how this tiny ethnic group rose to such prominence on the battlefields of Donbas. NAW will continue to examine this issue in our reporting in 2026.
Noteworthy Media Mentions
Saratoga experts provided numerous interviews over the past year, and for the sake of brevity, will mention several of the most noteworthy of these below.
👉 On August 28, the Kyiv Post, which has 80,000 daily online readers, published a write-up about our new project, Kremlin Strategic Failure, led by Senior Fellow Roger N. McDermott. In his interview, McDermott explained how the Russia-Ukraine war has become a clash between two fundamentally different military systems and discussed his new report, Fractured Strategy: A Systems View of Russia’s Early Failure in Ukraine.
👉 On August 29, Saratoga Foundation founding board member Philip M. Breedlove, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, co-authored an article with Saratoga President Glen Howard in The National Interest examining the key strategic role that Romania would play in any future European-led peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. A key focus of the article was the important role that Romania would serve as a critical backstop for European peacekeepers, offering key NATO infrastructure—especially the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base—to enable and sustain peacekeeping operations and stabilize NATO’s eastern flank in the Black Sea. 👇
👉On November 17, the Kyiv Post interviewed Saratoga Foundation President Glen Howard about Ukraine’s expanding campaign to disrupt Russia’s war effort far from the front lines by launching sabotage attacks over 4,000 miles from the Ukrainian border, disabling the Trans-Siberian railroad for a second time. Howard noted that the Indo-Pacific begins in Ukraine, referring to his 2023 analysis “Into Siberia,” and the Ukrainian attack on the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad attack which temporarily reduced Russia to a single functioning rail line to Vladivostok, pinching its trade with China and its east-to-west military logistics, freezing a critical supply route carrying North Korean weapons to Russian forces in Ukraine. Moreover, Ukraine is leveraging its own Siberian diaspora network as part of the Zelyonyi klin, or Green Wedge.
Board Update
👉 On a final note, Saratoga lost one of the founding fathers of our organization, Clinton Ives Smullyan. Blessed with a witty sense of humor and a passion for US foreign policy, Clint was instrumental from its inception in getting Saratoga off the ground and generously supported our efforts to keep US policymakers focused on the importance of understanding Russia and its threat to regional security. RIP. 🙏
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