I think something that's really understudied and misunderstood is the use of information.

Take cyber-capabilities. We have way more cyber-capability than Russia do. We could intervene in their elections easily. We choose not to do so because we're a different country. That's what Obama was trying to say.

I want to be clear that when you mention the Republican critique of President Obama, that is not President-elect Trump's critique, right? So you have a real clash within the Republican Party, and I think within the Trump administration, about how to develop policy toward Russia.

Putin is now nationalist. And what he does is, he tells the Russian people, OK, you may have a little less chicken in your pot, but I'm making Russia great again. Look what we're doing all other the world. Everyone is paying attention to us. And Russia is a great power, on par with the United States and others.

Russians don't want to fight ISIS in Syria. They want to leave that to us. Aside from that, I don't know what are the objectives that Mr. Trump seeks in having a good relationship with Mr. Putin.

We can deal with Russia on counterterrorism. We have and I think we are right now. That's easy.

In the short run, the big windfall winners ... have been the Islamists.