PROceedings Paper Abstract

Roger E. Kanet. "The War on Terrorism and the Revived U.S.-Russian Relationship." Paper prepared for delivery at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, August 29-September 1, 2002.

Paper (requires Acrobat Reader)

Keywords: Russian foreign policy, U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-Russian Relations, war on terrorism and US-Russian Relations, Putin's foreign policy

Abstract:

Abstract

Despite the high hopes for collaborative relations between the United States and Russia at the time of the creation of the Russian Federation, growing frictions in relations between the two states led, by spring 2001 to virtual confrontation. These frictions derived from very different perspectives on national objectives that had emerged in Washington and Moscow. While Russia was committed to reestablishing its place as an important global power, the U.S. political elite had virtually written Russia off as an unimportant actor in the international system. But, the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 seemingly changed the nature of the relationship between the two countries. This occurred primarily because President Putin of Russia, who had concluded that Russia’s future lay with and in the West, seized the opportunity afforded by the global war on terrorism to restructure Russia’s foreign policy and reopen opportunities for closer involvement with the United States and the West more broadly. Putin accepted the U.S. position on virtually all outstanding issues on which the two countries had been divided – NATO expansion, the U.S. development of a missile defense system and the abrogation of the 1972 ABM treaty, U.S. involvement on territory of the former USSR, etc.

So long as the Russian leadership is willing to act as a junior partner to the United States – much as the countries of Western Europe have done during the past half-century, at least in the security arena – the emerging relationship is likely to remain stable. Only within the context of the Western community is Russia able to fulfill its political, economic and security objectives. During the summit meeting in Moscow in May 2002 Russia, in effect, recognized that its relationship with the United States is asymmetrical, not one based on a presumed equality. The Russians, moreover, have renounced the costly and fruitless strategic and geopolitical contest that has characterized their relationship with the United States, even during the 1990s. Yet, for the relationship to prosper the United States cannot simply demand that Russia accept its interpretation of events or its policy orientation, as it has tended to do in the recent past. Serious issues remain to cloud the relationship, including the question of Russian exports of nuclear technology to Iran and the apparent commitment of the Bush Administration to bring down the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq regardless of the position on Iraq taken by its partners.

Contact the author regarding the paper.