For the United States, for the European Union, for Russia, for China and for many other leading players in world politics, the great turning point, most likely, will not be in 2020, but in 2024
US history knows just a few examples of how an incumbent president struggling for re-election is defeated by an opposition candidate. These votes of no confidence should not be attributed to the general rules of American democracy,...
... broad discussions about foreign policy during the Democratic debates, but where does each candidate stand concretely when it comes to Russia? And what would relations look like under the various candidates?
Here’s a summary of where some of the top 2020 candidates stand on Russia based on what they’ve said, what they’ve done, and what they say they’re going to do.
Amy Klobuchar
Amy Klobuchar
Photo by Lorie Shaull CC BY-SA 2.0
Of all the candidates with at least a viable chance at becoming ...
... and Iran
“When I thought I had already reached the bottom,
they knocked from below.”
— Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
This quote of the polish aphorist and poet of the 20
th
century, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, serves as a perfect epigraph to this in-depth 2020 forecast and ideally characterises the last 5–6 years of the developments in international relations and the crash of most of the “cautious optimism” that has ever been expressed within this period. Pessimists are the winners of the epoch in ...
... with Kyiv, although less as a result of Russian diplomacy than the efforts of Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy.
Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, joined Olga and Hugh to reflect on 2019 and discuss what 2020 might bring. They weigh in on everything from Syrian reconstruction to arms control to who President Putin might want to win the U.S. presidential election.
War and Peace
is a new podcast series from the International Crisis Group. Olga Oliker and ...
Russophobia, 2020 U.S. election, New START Treaty
Russia and the United States have had another year of rocky relations that have included more sanctions, heavy rhetoric, and a shortage of constructive dialogue to bring the two countries together. 2020 will likely ...
Despite international security problems that overshadow Caucasus challenges, the region retains its independent significance
In late 2016, the Russian International Affairs Council published
The Evolution of the Post-Soviet Space: Past, Present and Future
, a major anthology attempting to conceptualise development trends in both domestic and foreign policies in the newly independent states that emerged after the collapse of the once-single state, the USSR. The Trans-Caucasus featured prominently...
... most likely continue. 2019 marked European Parliament elections, the “overhaul” of the European Commission and other EU governing bodies, as well as the formation of a new balance of political power on the continent. It may be safe to assume that 2020 will be a quieter and altogether less nerve-wracking year for the European Union, although certain states (for example, Poland or Italy) may very well have some surprises in store. Additionally, a shift towards tackling the most critical issues associated ...
... Russia enjoys over some of the other great powers and, as such, it is respected not only by the country's friends and allies, but also by its enemies and opponents.
All things considered, we can expect the global system to become even more unstable in 2020. I would, of course, like to be wrong here, but the energy produced by the collapse of the old system of international relations has not yet entirely dissipated. The chain reaction of disintegration that it has caused is unlikely to be arrested any ...
... final conflict
Understandably, far left activism sows discord within the already disorderly ranks of the Democratic Party and plays into the hands of Donald Trump. The more influential the radicals become, the better his odds of being reelected in 2020. The fact that Democrats will waste time and effort on infighting is not the only reason. By their activism the far left helps the current president make a caricature of the entire Democratic Party, portraying its candidates as seeking to bring Soviet ...