Carnegie Moscow Center
Barack Obama’s term as U.S. president is likely to signal a change in U.S.-Russian relations, with U.S. foreign policy emphasizing pragmatism over ideology.
President-elect Obama will inherit a number of foreign policy challenges from the Bush administration when he takes office. Key areas where the new administration must focus to reverse the Bush administration's failings include Afghanistan, diplomacy, unilateralism, arms control, and climate change.
Russia must aim for modernization and use its foreign policy to achieve rapprochement with Europe, North America and the economically and politically developed world at large.
Successive U.S. administrations have forfeited the chance to integrate Russia into the West first afforded by the collapse of Communism and again by 9/11. The United States has either neglected Russia or openly disregarded its overtures and warnings on a range of regional concerns. President-elect Obama needs a comprehensive approach to Russia based on a shared vision of European security.
The past three months have been a turbulent time for the Russian Federation, marked by the Russia-Georgia conflict, global financial crisis, and U.S. presidential elections. Carnegie's Nikolai Petrov explains how the government’s response has illustrated that modernization from above will not occur in Russia.
The crisis in Georgia bluntly revealed the failure by the United States and Russia to create a closer working relationship after the Cold War. Agreements like the START and Concentional Armed Forces in Europe treaties could help establish a new book of rules both countries can embrace.
Expectations are running high for major changes in the next U.S. administration's foreign policy, but how much change is likely, and will it be enough to close the gap between America and the world? Top experts from the Carnegie Endowment and elsewhere discussed this question during a two-day conference in Brussels.
Experts discussed how the West can move forward with its relationship with Russia in the aftermath of the Georgian conflict.
Disarmament cooperation between Russia and the U.S. has stalled. Negotiations must be renewed, for inaction could revive an arms race.
Alexei Arbatov, scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center, gave a talk on the Putin legacy and the likely trajectory of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Ambassador James F. Collins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program, moderated the event.