The Obama administration seeks to "reset" American thinking on Russia with the goal of engaging it productively on strategic issues like reducing nuclear arsenals and containing Iran. The Bush administration, this thinking goes, got Russia fundamentally wrong; in doing so it made Russia resentful, truculent, and otherwise hostile to cooperating with the United States on addressing shared strategic interests. The Bush administration certainly got Russia wrong, but not in this way. President Obama would be well advised to go far beyond a simple reboot; he should change the software.
Russian leaders today derive their understanding of their strategic position and how to improve it from sensors receiving very different messages.
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