Carnegie Moscow Center
In 2013, the state of, and prospects for, U.S.-Russian cooperation in arms control and security look more dubious than at any point since the end of the Cold War. The main obstacle is unfavorable domestic political environments in both countries.
The emerging Sino-Russian relationship in the Xi-Putin era is likely to take the form of a tandem in which China will be the driving force, though not at the cost of Russia surrendering its independence.
Deadlock at the UN Security Council has so far dashed international hopes for finding an end to the Syrian crisis. The United States and Russia must now find a practical mechanism for implementing political transition in Syria.
U.S.-Russian public health cooperation has led to extraordinary achievements, from the development and production of the Sabin polio vaccine to the eradication of smallpox. But the full potential of this collaboration has not yet been achieved.
Western society wants to bring back a normative dimension to foreign policy and stop the export of corruption from authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries to the West.
The United States will probably continue to limit its presence in global affairs because Barack Obama is committed to a more moderate U.S. role in foreign affairs.
Obama’s bid to reduce the number of nuclear weapons globally requires an updated and comprehensive look at Russia’s security needs to be successful.
For the first time, Moscow has said openly that it will limit the West and its influence not only in Russian territory but also in the post-Soviet countries.
While the United States has made mistakes, the current state of Russian-American relations stems mostly from the Kremlin’s creation of imitation democracy and its attempts to exploit the West and anti-Americanism for political survival.
Despite the recent rapid deterioration in relations, the United States and Russia need to continue talk to each other in order to preserve mutually beneficial cooperation.