When he arrives today in Moscow on his first visit to Russia as US president, Barack Obama can end the “Cold War of Minds” that has dogged Russian-American ties since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout the post-Cold War era these relations have been characterised not by mutual trust and reciprocity but by fear and unilateralism. Now President Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have the historic opportunity to lay the foundations for a genuine strategic partnership that transcends the old East-West divide.
Relations reached a nadir last summer over Moscow's response to Georgia's attempt to reclaim the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force. But the wider causes of estrangement can be traced to the 1990s, when President Clinton broke his promise not to enlarge Nato and went to war over Kosovo against Russia's ally, Serbia. There was a brief truce after 9/11, but then Vladimir Putin and George W Bush fell out over Iraq, the arrest of the Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the pro-western “colour revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine.
Mr Putin's retreat from democracy and the Kremlin's increased interference in the post-Soviet space fuelled mutual suspicion and further emboldened Mr Bush's policy of continued Nato expansion, US military presence in Central Asia and the proposed anti-ballistic missile shield on Russia's western borders. Just as globalisation exponentially increased the need for cooperation, Moscow and Washington renewed their Cold War rivalry and traded little more than threats and accusations.
document.write('');
The new, young presidents – Obama and Medvedev – seem determined to transform this dangerous dynamic. Last week Mr Obama declared that “the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations are outdated; it's time to move forward in a different direction”. He also said that Mr Medvedev “understands that”, but the former president and current prime minister Putin “has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new”. After their first bilateral meeting on the margins of the G20 summit in London, Mr Obama believes he can forge more than just a working relationship with Mr Medvedev.
After his speech on transatlantic relations in Prague in April and his recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo, Mr Obama's speech tomorrow at the New Economics School in Moscow will be his third major foreign policy statement since taking office. By seeking a sensible rapprochement with Russia, he will add substance to his vision of “progressive realism” – a bold attempt to fuse American idealism with concrete multilateral cooperation. If successful, these Moscow talks could be the most significant event in US-Russian relations since Ronald Reagan's visit to the USSR in 1988, when he chose to engage the Soviet Union instead of vilifying it as the “evil empire”.
Since then, ties with Russia have virtually been eclipsed by relations with China, but Mr Obama knows that Russia continues to play a crucial role in the wider European space, Central Asia and the Middle East. In itself, this acknowledgement offers Moscow the sort of respect that many western leaders have failed to show.It also runs counter to the widespread view in both East and West that the former superpower is in irreversible decline. Russia seems to have lost its global geopolitical stature, and the deepening recession (largely caused by collapsing energy and commodity prices) appears to have plunged the country into the worst socio-economic crisis since the 1998 debt default and the rouble devaluation. Coupled with a rapidly shrinking population and a lack of innovative dynamism, the Russian Bear is militarily ineffective and politically corrupt.
For precisely these reasons, Mr Obama argues that the West and the rest hav
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document.write(''); Obama knows the danger of a weak and wounded Bear
Adrian Pabst
Last Updated: July 05. 2009 9:22PM UAE / July 5. 2009 5:22PM GMT
When he arrives today in Moscow on his first visit to Russia as US president, Barack Obama can end the “Cold War of Minds” that has dogged Russian-American ties since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout the post-Cold War era these relations have been characterised not by mutual trust and reciprocity but by fear and unilateralism. Now President Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have the historic opportunity to lay the foundations for a genuine strategic partnership that transcends the old East-West divide.
@body arnhem:Relations reached a nadir last summer over Moscow's response to Georgia's attempt to reclaim the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force. But the wider causes of estrangement can be traced to the 1990s, when President Clinton broke his promise not to enlarge Nato and went to war over Kosovo against Russia's ally, Serbia. There was a brief truce after 9/11, but then Vladimir Putin and George W Bush fell out over Iraq, the arrest of the Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the pro-western “colour revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine.
Mr Putin's retreat from democracy and the Kremlin's increased interference in the post-Soviet space fuelled mutual suspicion and further emboldened Mr Bush's policy of continued Nato expansion, US military presence in Central Asia and the proposed anti-ballistic missile shield on Russia's western borders. Just as globalisation exponentially increased the need for cooperation, Moscow and Washington renewed their Cold War rivalry and traded little more than threats and accusations.
document.write('');
The new, young presidents – Obama and Medvedev – seem determined to transform this dangerous dynamic. Last week Mr Obama declared that “the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations are outdated; it's time to move forward in a different direction”. He also said that Mr Medvedev “understands that”, but the former president and current prime minister Putin “has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new”. After their first bilateral meeting on the margins of the G20 summit in London, Mr Obama believes he can forge more than just a working relationship with Mr Medvedev.
After his speech on transatlantic relations in Prague in April and his recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo, Mr Obama's speech tomorrow at the New Economics School in Moscow will be his third major foreign policy statement since taking office. By seeking a sensible rapprochement with Russia, he will add substance to his vision of “progressive realism” – a bold attempt to fuse American idealism with concrete multilateral cooperation. If successful, these Moscow talks could be the most significant event in US-Russian relations since Ronald Reagan's visit to the USSR in 1988, when he chose to engage the Soviet Union instead of vilifying it as the “evil empire”.
Since then, ties with Russia have virtually been eclipsed by relations with China, but Mr Obama knows that Russia continues to play a crucial role in the wider European space, Central Asia and the Middle East. In itself, this acknowledgement offers Moscow the sort of respect that many western leaders have failed to show.It also runs counter to the widespread view in both East and West that the former superpower is in irreversible decline. Russia seems to have lost its global geopolitical stature, and the deepening recession (largely caused by collapsing energy and commodity prices) appears to have plunged the country into the worst socio-economic crisis since the 1998 debt default and the rouble devaluation. Coupled with a rapidly shrinking population and a lack of innovative dynamism, the Russian Bear is militarily ineffective and politically corrupt.
For precisely these reasons, Mr Obama argues that the West and the rest have a stake in better relations with the Kremlin. A weak Russia is a source of instability for herself and a threat to her numerous neighbours. A stronger Russia more integrated into transatlantic political and security structures is indispensable to peace in the Caucasus, Central Eurasia and the wider Middle East. The Obama administration understands that Russia is economically too small to deserve preferential treatment, but geopolitically too important to ignore or antagonise. That is why a new round of nuclear disarmament and a new arms control regime will top the agenda of talks.
As such, Mr Obama's reasons for “pressing the reset button” in US-Russian relations are not limited to enlightened US self-interest, but mark a wider recognition that the world is multipolar and that US unilateralism has undermined the capacity for global collective action. This includes initiatives in areas of mutual interest such as climate change, trade, counter-terrorism and shared security concerns such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
However, Mr Obama's visit to Moscow will also aim to explore the real potential for closer cooperation in the much more contentious fields of energy and European security, especially the anti-missile shield and the “frozen conflicts” over breakaway regions and unrecognised states. By arguing for a new approach beyond old Cold War posturing, the US president will hope to restore the kind of trust that governed East-West relations at the time of Reagan and Gorbachev.
The question is whether Mr Medvedev will respond to this overture and what he can bring to the table. Unless the Kremlin is prepared to offer a positive vision that is based on mutual interests and also transcends the idea of an exclusive Russian sphere of influence in the post-Soviet space, Mr Obama may be tempted to revert to some of the unilateral policies of his predecessor. Nothing less than the future of a more multilateral, multipolar global balance of power is at stake.
Adrian Pabst is a research fellow at the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies, and teaches religion and politics at the University of Nottingham in the UK
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When he arrives today in Moscow on his first visit to Russia as US president, Barack Obama can end the “Cold War of Minds” that has dogged Russian-American ties since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout the post-Cold War era these relations have been characterised not by mutual trust and reciprocity but by fear and unilateralism. Now President Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have the historic opportunity to lay the foundations for a genuine strategic partnership that transcends the old East-West divide.
@body arnhem:Relations reached a nadir last summer over Moscow's response to Georgia's attempt to reclaim the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force. But the wider causes of estrangement can be traced to the 1990s, when President Clinton broke his promise not to enlarge Nato and went to war over Kosovo against Russia's ally, Serbia. There was a brief truce after 9/11, but then Vladimir Putin and George W Bush fell out over Iraq, the arrest of the Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the pro-western “colour revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine.
Mr Putin's retreat from democracy and the Kremlin's increased interference in the post-Soviet space fuelled mutual suspicion and further emboldened Mr Bush's policy of continued Nato expansion, US military presence in Central Asia and the proposed anti-ballistic missile shield on Russia's western borders. Just as globalisation exponentially increased the need for cooperation, Moscow and Washington renewed their Cold War rivalry and traded little more than threats and accusations.
The new, young presidents – Obama and Medvedev – seem determined to transform this dangerous dynamic. Last week Mr Obama declared that “the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations are outdated; it's time to move forward in a different direction”. He also said that Mr Medvedev “understands that”, but the former president and current prime minister Putin “has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new”. After their first bilateral meeting on the margins of the G20 summit in London, Mr Obama believes he can forge more than just a working relationship with Mr Medvedev.
After his speech on transatlantic relations in Prague in April and his recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo, Mr Obama's speech tomorrow at the New Economics School in Moscow will be his third major foreign policy statement since taking office. By seeking a sensible rapprochement with Russia, he will add substance to his vision of “progressive realism” – a bold attempt to fuse American idealism with concrete multilateral cooperation. If successful, these Moscow talks could be the most significant event in US-Russian relations since Ronald Reagan's visit to the USSR in 1988, when he chose to engage the Soviet Union instead of vilifying it as the “evil empire”.
Since then, ties with Russia have virtually been eclipsed by relations with China, but Mr Obama knows that Russia continues to play a crucial role in the wider European space, Central Asia and the Middle East. In itself, this acknowledgement offers Moscow the sort of respect that many western leaders have failed to show.It also runs counter to the widespread view in both East and West that the former superpower is in irreversible decline. Russia seems to have lost its global geopolitical stature, and the deepening recession (largely caused by collapsing energy and commodity prices) appears to have plunged the country into the worst socio-economic crisis since the 1998 debt default and the rouble devaluation. Coupled with a rapidly shrinking population and a lack of innovative dynamism, the Russian Bear is militarily ineffective and politically corrupt.
For precisely these reasons, Mr Obama argues that the West and the rest have a stake in better relations with the Kremlin. A weak Russia is a source of instability for herself and a threat to her numerous neighbours. A stronger Russia more integrated into transatlantic political and security structures is indispensable to peace in the Caucasus, Central Eurasia and the wider Middle East. The Obama administration understands that Russia is economically too small to deserve preferential treatment, but geopolitically too important to ignore or antagonise. That is why a new round of nuclear disarmament and a new arms control regime will top the agenda of talks.
As such, Mr Obama's reasons for “pressing the reset button” in US-Russian relations are not limited to enlightened US self-interest, but mark a wider recognition that the world is multipolar and that US unilateralism has undermined the capacity for global collective action. This includes initiatives in areas of mutual interest such as climate change, trade, counter-terrorism and shared security concerns such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
However, Mr Obama's visit to Moscow will also aim to explore the real potential for closer cooperation in the much more contentious fields of energy and European security, especially the anti-missile shield and the “frozen conflicts” over breakaway regions and unrecognised states. By arguing for a new approach beyond old Cold War posturing, the US president will hope to restore the kind of trust that governed East-West relations at the time of Reagan and Gorbachev.
The question is whether Mr Medvedev will respond to this overture and what he can bring to the table. Unless the Kremlin is prepared to offer a positive vision that is based on mutual interests and also transcends the idea of an exclusive Russian sphere of influence in the post-Soviet space, Mr Obama may be tempted to revert to some of the unilateral policies of his predecessor. Nothing less than the future of a more multilateral, multipolar global balance of power is at stake.
Adrian Pabst is a research fellow at the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies, and teaches religion and politics at the University of Nottingham in the UK
Have your say
Top stories UAE to support humanitarian operations in Pakistan Abu Dhabi hotels face ratings downgrade China says 140 dead in Xinjiang unrest Obama's first visit to Russia Dubai Police stop Iranian petition Yas Island vacuums up the rubbish It's big, it's fast ... and it's back Your View Do you think it's a good move by the Government to ban lorries from Abu Dhabi's roads during rush hours?How often do you feel in danger as a pedestrian or motorist?What activities do you recommend during the summer months?Have your say: Tell us your memories of the musical legendWill you be taking part in the new military-style fitness camp or does it sound like too much hard work? Most popular stories Most read Most e-mailed Expats leave as school term ends Contractors must be paid, says British trade minister 'Speeding towards an early grave' Dramatic drop in food prices Abu Dhabi bans lorries during rush hours Traffic in Abu Dhabi returns to normal Steady bullion supports gold sales Taqa acquires Canada gas lease Born-again Roddick is enjoying life Real (estate) bargains Expats leave as school term ends Abu Dhabi landlords keeping rents artificially high, agents claim Investors in Becker, Lauda &Schumacher towers demand refund Five found guilty of embezzling Dh423m from finance company UAE to house Irena headquarters Abu Dhabi to extend length of school day Retail rents fall for first time in at least 10 years Some private schools will be exempt from Ramadan delay Contractors must be paid, says British trade minister UAE banks exposed to Saudi firms var countries=new ddtabcontent("countrytabs") countries.setpersist(true) countries.setselectedClassTarget("link") //"link" or "linkparent" countries.init() Products & Services Your View e-polls e-Paper RSS Feeds Home UAE World Business Sport About us Contact us Terms & Conditions FAQ Site map
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