Artyom Lukin: Putin is Right and Obama is Left, and never the twain shall meet
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The cancellation of Obama’s visit to Moscow made compellingly clear what previously many have suspected: the current presidents of the United States and Russia are in a state of conflict. Perhaps the problem is the two men’s individual psychological incompatibility – this sometimes happens between politicians. However, in this particular case much more fundamental differences may be playing out. And here I am not referring to the divergences in national interests of Russia and the United States, which, as among any sovereign entities, are unavoidable, in one form or another. Yet in the Putin-Obama case, the root issue lies in their personal political philosophies which are essentially contrary to each other. Vladimir Putin embodies the Right and conservative approach, whereas Barack Obama leans toward the Left and liberal values.
One of the most outstanding political thinkers of the twentieth century Edward H. Carr, discussing the dialectics of idealism and realism, distinguished two antithetical chains of mutually linked concepts. The first group includes such interlinked concepts as “theory, voluntarism, Left, intellectual, radical, ideals, immature, inexperienced”. The opposing chain is represented by “practice, determinism, Right, bureaucrat, conservative, institutions, old, experienced”.[1] It seems that Obama has many qualities from the first list, while Putin from the second.
The fact that Putin is a man of the Right has now caught attention of the social conservatives in the West. In his recent article, one of the leaders of the American conservative movement Pat Buchanan expresses heart-felt sympathy for the Russian president who signs anti-gay laws and protects the interests of the Christian church. [2] Buchanan stops just short of endorsing Putin for the US president. At any rate, for Buchanan Putin is obviously preferable over “Barack Hussein Obama”.
Putin’s conservative ideology accounts not only for his discord with the liberal Obama but also for his good relationships with a number of world leaders belonging to the Right, such as Silvio Berlusconi, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Shinzo Abe. In the same vein, Putin established a rapport with George W. Bush, who famously “looked into Putin’s eyes” and apparently saw a congenial conservative soul there.
Thus we have to face the reality that the prospects for Russia-US relations for the next few years are not bright. Objective, and quite substantial, differences in the two countries’ national interests have been exacerbated by the opposite personal worldviews of their leaders. It is immensely difficult for Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama to find common language just because they represent antithetical paradigms of the Right and the Left. Combination of the liberal and left-leaning American president and the right-wing Russian leader turns out to be very unfavorable for the bilateral relationship.
The situation might change for the better if in 2016 the Democrat Obama is replaced by a Republican who combines conservatism in domestic politics, as well as on human rights issues, with restraint in foreign policy. For Putin’s Russia that would be the ideal scenario in which rapprochement between Moscow and Washington would be all but assured. Alas, in real politics we are seldom blessed with ideal scenarios…
Artyom Lukin is Associate Professor of International Relations and Deputy Director for Research at the School of Regional and International Studies, Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok, Russia). Email: artlukin@mail.ru
[1] Vendulka Kubalkova. The Twenty Years’ Catharsis. In International Relations in a Constructed World. Ed. by Vendulka Kubalkova, Nicholas Onuf, Paul Kowert. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharp, 2008, p. 32; Edward H. Carr. The Twenty Years’ Crisis. N.Y.: Palgrave, 2001.
[2] Pat Buchanan. Post v. Putin -- Whose Side Are You On? August 16, 2013.
