Carnegie Moscow Center
The West and the United States should revisit their policy toward Russia and attempt to find an approach that goes beyond cynical deal-making and false friendship.
As the debate over congressional authorization for action in Syria showed, the American public has lost its taste for unilateral military intervention that cannot be justified by a direct threat to American lives.
Moscow and Washington face the tough task of coming up with an enforcement mechanism to secure Syria’s chemical weapons that outlines possible consequences if Assad reneges or cheats on the deal.
The message that the president and the American people are sending at the moment is that the United States prefers even unlikely and temporary solutions over more war, more chaos, and possibly more Americans being put at risk.
For the moment, an idea that might ultimately seem to be in the interest of Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, arguably, the Syrian opposition has gained surprising traction.
Washington should endorse the Russian proposal and invest President Vladimir Putin’s prestige in winning Syria’s assent and full, timely implementation. Such an outcome would be better than military action and better than no action.
Though Putin purported to oppose any attempt to hijack the economic agenda of the G-20, he succeeded in setting the stage for a critical debate on U.S. foreign policy with the global leaders.
During the G20 summit, the world leaders need to tackle serious economic challenges. At the same time, the abrupt halt to a scheduled U.S.-Russia summit and a potential intervention in Syria have pushed security issues to the top of the summit’s agenda.
Moving away from the standard agenda may help the United States and Russia exit the current impasse in bilateral relations and avoid a long period of stagnation and hostilities.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s cancellation of the summit with Vladimir Putin is a turning point in U.S.-Russia relations. Obama, who once told the Russians he would be more flexible after the elections, has proven to be the opposite.