The Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) was founded in June 1997 by graduates of Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO).

CAST Activities

CAST  is an independent, noncommercial non-governmental organization. The Centre is also one of the few research institutes in Russia that is not tied to political parties, state bodies, commercial organizations or interest groups.

The Centre is recognized by the Russian research community as the first and the only Russian research center specializing in analysis of Russian conventional arms trade and defense trends both nationally and internationally. 

The main goal of CAST is to promote innovative research addressing the security challenges and implications of arms and technology trade and defense restructuring.   New thinking on these issues will emerge because CAST represents the next generation of Russian security scholars.

CAST cooperates closely with representatives of both the Soviet and post-Soviet research hierarchies but seeks to remain independent and provide objective analysis.   According to CAST, a new generation of security scholars should be different and should seek:

• to be more objective, more mobile and more transparent;

• to have absolute independence from state bodies;

• to conduct research;

• to be integrated into the international research community;

• to be liberal and market oriented.

Currently, CAST employs ten researchers working on full time basis.  The Centre's researchers also collaborate on an ad hoc basis with leading Russian experts, journalists, defense specialists and civil servants working on similar issues.

Since April 1997, CAST has been publishing the first and only journal on arms trade and defense industries issues, «Eksport Vooruzheniy» (Arms Export). The journal is bimonthly.  

Some of the issues addressed by the publication include:

• conventional arms export from Russia to China, India, and conflict zones;

• the institutional structure of Russia’s  arms trade system, and the influence of external and internal politics on this structure and decision making process. 

• the impact of Russian and foreign deliveries of weaponry on regional and global security;

• changes and restructuring of Russian defense industries, efforts to adapt to a market economy, the role of the state in governing defense industries,  decision making process in defense industries;

• R&D on the next generation of Russian arms and military equipment  and the military procurement policy of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defence.

Since 1999 CAST is seeking to expand its research priorities. The primary area of interest rests with research on arms trade and the defense establishment.  The Centre also examines related aspects of Russian foreign and defense policies.

CAST has contacts with several Russian and foreign research centers including:

•   Bonn International Center for Conversion

•   Fondation de Reserches Strategique in Paris

•   Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques in Paris

•   Institute of Economic Forecasting of Russian Academy of Science in Moscow

•   International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London

•   Moscow Carnegie Center

•   Small Arms Survey Project in Geneva

•   Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Over the last three years CAST financing was subscription fee for Arms Export journal. After having proved its effectiveness and credibility CAST is seeking outside funding for its research agenda.

CAST aims at becoming an independent source of analysis comparable to SIPRI or IISS.

CAST Executive Board    Our Address