... capacities to protect our interests” [
15
]. Russia’s foreign policy center of gravity is moving towards the East and to the South, while the West is rapidly losing its position as the top Moscow’s foreign policy priority.
Getting back to the Cold War order
Ivan Timofeev:
Russia-West: Rising Stakes
Many influential Russian analysts argue that under the current challenging circumstances the best possible scenario for the European security would be to move back to the old Cold War system, even though many practical arrangements ...
... where our memories come into play. I remember the euphoria accompanying the fall of the Berlin Wall and the alleged end of the Cold War, which led to a unipolar world. But how many of us do properly recall the major events that have occurred in recent years?... ... the obliteration of most of humanity. Those of us who remember have only to recall how NATO, instead of disbanding, ignored Russia’s concerns and attempts at serious dialogue, expanded, and then illegally bombed Belgrade, ignoring the UN. That was not enough, as the West then destroyed Iraq (lying, into the bargain) and Libya, and tried to destroy Syria. Russia kept warning NATO to stop, but ...
... was the best evidence of the West’s Cold War goals. The intention of the Soviet side in 1986 was to end the Cold War, but the intention of the Western side was not merely to end it even on favorable terms, but to win it.
There were elements in the West, who were satisfied with the way the Cold War seemingly ended, because it looked like the Russian side had unilaterally surrendered. Even then, there was no attempt to implement the Kissingerian formula of drawing in Russia and China into co-managing a world order that was unstable because of the emergence of or transition to multipolarity....
... established elites have not come to terms with reality: the balance of military, political, economic, and moral power has shifted too far away from the West to be reversed.
Rising tensions between the United Kingdom and Russia are but further proof that Russia and the West, according to no less an authority than
Richard N. Haass
, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, have entered a “
Cold War II
”. I tend to disagree.
Yes, Russia’s relations with the United States, and now also with the UK, are worse than in the 1950s, and the chance of a direct conflict is higher than at any time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Given the ...
... crime, energy security and even cyber security. The regimes model can also work on the sub-regional level: for example, it has long been applied effectively in the Arctic.
In the current situation, the regimes model could efficiently complement the old Cold War model in Russia's relations with the West. As distinct from the inherently rigid Cold War model, which requires strict codification of agreements reached, the regimes model is flexible, often making it possible to do without burdensome negotiations over technicalities and avoid complex and ...
... personal sympathy) is aroused by his view on the theory of liberalism and on such concepts as postmodernism, post-structuralism and eurasianism itself.In the first chapter Kisoudis puts forward the thesis about the beginning of the new (i.e. the second) Cold War between Russia and the West. The Ukrainian conflict of 2014 is its starting point. Defining Russian-Western relations in this way the author tries to discover some differences and similarities with the first Cold War that took place from 1945 to 1991 between USSR and USA. In ...
... sides, in both economic and security domains.
During
the Cold War, the Communist system was able to challenge
N
ATO (with the Warsaw Treaty Organisation) and the European
Union
(with COMECON). Indeed, there were potential asymmetries
even
during the Cold War, but these were not that evident and the Soviet Union could claim an overall “parity” with the West.
Tod
ay, the situation is different. The Russian economic potential
is
evidently no match for that of the European Union. Likewise,
N
ATO has clear superiority over Russia in terms of quality and
quantity
of military capabilities. Under such circumstances, it is
inc
reasingly difficult for Russian ...
... interests and strategy by individuals and organizations. Lack of this understanding will be replaced by stereotypes and will lead to erroneous decisions. The price under current conditions could be high.
Many analysts compare current relations between Russia and the West with the Cold War times. This is not quite accurate because there are many differences – both good and bad. Foreign optimists note that the current confrontation is regional unlike the global nature of the Cold War. There is no rivalry between ideological ...
... structure of the international system in the XXI century?
Some analysts – at least in Russia – have gone even further and maintain that this new global split has been... ... and international developments. Nor would I like to dig into the chronicles of the Cold War; it should be crystal clear to any unbiased observer that this period can hardly... ... the XX century. Fifty years ago the world was divided into two systems – the Western (capitalist) and the Eastern (communist) with irreconcilable (antagonistic)...