http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/d%C3%A9tente-plus-how-should-west-deal-russia
“Leslie Gelb speaks for much of the US foreign policy establishment, writes Walter Laquer, “when he says that ... ‘It is totally unrealistic . . . to think that the West can gain desired Russian restraint and cooperation without dealing with Moscow as a great power that possesses ...
... then, however, looking at the map, thinking about Russian history and its situation in the world today, I have come to appreciate the Colonel's remark. Not all countries need to be great powers. Not all countries need to conduct an independent foreign policy. Not even former imperial powers, like Great Britain and France, need an independent foreign policy.
But Russia does.
... determination to get rid of Assad are not those being publicly stated. Not that US motivations are necessarily sinister. Most likely, they follow from aims and objectives that are not unreasonable, but which would not wash well in public debate. Those who make foreign policy decisions know very well that international relations are more about power, prestige, and economic interests than about high-flown moral principles. They also know that such motivations do not usually sound good in public. Arguments from ...
... will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are -- but this is just wrong.
In an open letter to President Clinton at the end of June 1997, fifty former US senators, cabinet secretaries and ambassadors, as well as US arms control and foreign policy specialists, stated their belief that “the current US-led effort to expand NATO … is a policy error of historic importance.”
The policy of NATO expansion was not carefully thought through. General Charles Wald was ...