Reimagining Russia
After the end of the Ukraine War, can U.S.-Russia relations be set on a path to strategic realignment?
The depiction of Russia as an inescapable enemy is a dangerous narrative that will only undermine the long-term interests of the United States and the West by fostering permanent strategic ties between Russia and China. Notwithstanding the challenges posed by the Ukraine War, Washington must sooner or later develop a formula to exercise the kind of three-cornered diplomacy between Moscow, Beijing, and Washington developed by President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that helped win the Cold War and bring stability between these three powers. At the same time, Washington diplomats will have to help find a solution to the Ukraine war that somehow will be acceptable to all protagonists
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russians welcomed Americans, anticipating the friendship promised by Reagan to Gorbachev. This opportunity to forge a new relationship dissipated over the ensuing years with NATO’s absorption of former Warsaw Pact countries. Russia’s disillusionment culminated when NATO rejected Yeltsin’s appeal for Russia also to join the alliance.
The reigning culture of institutionalized Russophobia within Western governments and media is not conducive to developing momentum for peace negotiations. The Ukraine War should be resolved under a blueprint that not only preserves respect for sovereignty and borders but sets the stage for rapprochement between Russia and the West. The present path, which appears bent on punishing Moscow, will not lead to better long-term stability in the region. Instead, it is most likely to produce, at best, a frozen conflict with the same kind of negative consequences for stability as seen in Korea over six decades.
Prince Klemens von Metternich ended the Napoleonic Wars, which cost millions of lives over twelve years, by allowing a defeated France to join the victorious allies, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain, in 1815 as a member of the Concert of Europe. That arrangement helped to create a stable peace in Europe for a good part of the nineteenth century. Equally creative diplomacy will be needed today to help solve yet another bitter and destabilizing conflict in the heart of Europe.
The depiction of Russia as an inescapable enemy is a dangerous narrative that will only undermine the long-term interests of the United States and the West by fostering permanent strategic ties between Russia and China. Notwithstanding the challenges posed by the Ukraine War, Washington must sooner or later develop a formula to exercise the kind of three-cornered diplomacy between Moscow, Beijing, and Washington developed by President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that helped win the Cold War and bring stability between these three powers. At the same time, Washington diplomats will have to help find a solution to the Ukraine war that somehow will be acceptable to all protagonists
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russians welcomed Americans, anticipating the friendship promised by Reagan to Gorbachev. This opportunity to forge a new relationship dissipated over the ensuing years with NATO’s absorption of former Warsaw Pact countries. Russia’s disillusionment culminated when NATO rejected Yeltsin’s appeal for Russia also to join the alliance.
The reigning culture of institutionalized Russophobia within Western governments and media is not conducive to developing momentum for peace negotiations. The Ukraine War should be resolved under a blueprint that not only preserves respect for sovereignty and borders but sets the stage for rapprochement between Russia and the West. The present path, which appears bent on punishing Moscow, will not lead to better long-term stability in the region. Instead, it is most likely to produce, at best, a frozen conflict with the same kind of negative consequences for stability as seen in Korea over six decades.
Prince Klemens von Metternich ended the Napoleonic Wars, which cost millions of lives over twelve years, by allowing a defeated France to join the victorious allies, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain, in 1815 as a member of the Concert of Europe. That arrangement helped to create a stable peace in Europe for a good part of the nineteenth century. Equally creative diplomacy will be needed today to help solve yet another bitter and destabilizing conflict in the heart of Europe.