Carnegie Moscow Center
Cooperation between the United States and Russia has essentially halted, and contact between Washington and Moscow has decreased dramatically. At the same time, the attention each country pays to the other in their respective domestic debates has increased significantly.
The current downturn in U.S.-Russian relations can be understood as a new Cold War. A new long-term strategic vision is needed to guide the two countries through this challenging period.
The Carnegie Moscow Center organized a conference to discuss the experience of Russian-American alliance during the Second World War, as well as the experience of cooperation and rivalry after the end of the Cold War.
Moscow, Washington, and Beijing hold dissimilar and sometimes opposing views on several security issues, including ballistic missile defense, strategic conventional weapons, and the INF Treaty.
In 2014, Russia broke out of the post–Cold War order and openly challenged the U.S.-led international system. The new period of rivalry between the Kremlin and the West is likely to endure for years.
As the world powers develop non-nuclear weapons that can strike distant targets in a short period of time (Conventional Prompt Global Strike, or CPGS, weapons), it is important to raise awareness of this issue, while not trying to advocate for or against such weapons.
The current conflict between the European Union and Russia is a clash between a postmodern world, in which states prefer to use soft power to achieve their foreign policy goals, and a modern one, in which the use of force in foreign policy is considered acceptable.
According to this year’s Transatlantic Trends survey, Russians have an increasingly unfavorable view of the United States and the EU. Americans and Europeans also had more negative outlooks toward Russia in 2014 than previous years.
Today, the Russia-U.S. security relationship has both areas which will not likely see advances and opportunities for progress.
The development of non-nuclear weapons that can strike distant targets in a short period of time has been a U.S. goal for over a decade now.