The Russians were put into a position where an organization, NATO, originally created to contain them, was placing missiles, defensive or not, next to their borders. The next logical realist step would be to counter that missile system with their own missile system, and that is what Russia has just announced. Russia was placed into a security crisis and was forced to act just as boldly. The plans to establish a missile system next to the Polish border will balance out the military power that would not have been balanced with just a NATO missile system present. However, these new actions by Russia may now make NATO take an even larger step and make the NATO system larger and more powerful.

NATO now has the next decision to make regarding Russia’s actions. It can choose to pursue the next wrung on the power level and try to gain an advantage, possibly leading to an arms race or military build up on the borders, or back down from its development of a missile shield. Poland in particular now faces a greater security threat as Russian missiles are going to be based right along Poland’s borders. The missiles are short-ranged which demonstrates Russia’s direct challenge to Poland. Although Russia is a much more powerful nation than Poland, Poland’s alliance with the United States will help maintain a balance of power against Russia.

It appears that as of now each state is pursuing a deterrence policy through escalation dominance where as each state goes about matching each others’ moves and moving up the power ladder until a compromise is met. However, Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, stated that Russia was merely “growling” and that Russia’s actions should not really be seen as a threat. This may lead to further escalation until Russia does establish that it is serious about preventing a NATO missile shield within its sphere of influence.