Does Washington Have Any Real Strategy Towards Russia? (Thoughts on the Monograph “Russia and the United States in the Evolving World Order”)

Does Washington Have Any Real Strategy Towards Russia? (Thoughts on the Monograph “Russia and the United States in the Evolving World Order”)


Shaklein V.V.,

Researcher, Institute of the USA and Canada Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, vasily.shaklein@gmail.com


elibrary_id: 476817 |


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2019.02.14

For citation:

Shaklein V.V. Does Washington Have Any Real Strategy Towards Russia? (Thoughts on the Monograph “Russia and the United States in the Evolving World Order”). – Polis. Political Studies. 2019. No. 2. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2019.02.14



Abstract

Russia and the United States remain decisive players in international relations as members of great power club though America is the superpower. Relations between the countries exert influence on international development, solution of global and regional problems, other countries. Russia is seeking constructive interaction with the United States, America also seemed to have sought the same kind of relations, and however, it turns out that countries have dissimilar understanding of a constructive dialogue, its agenda, and terms of conducting such dialogue. It is often mentioned that the main source of contemporary state of affairs is misunderstanding/misperception. In order to improve the situation, the Russian authors of the monograph Russia and the United States in the Evolving World Order presented their view of such important problems as world order formation, structural trends in many countries and worldwide, policy of the United States and Russia in Asia Pacific region, integration in post-Soviet space, the Crimea case, Russian-American relations per se and their peculiarities in the 21st century. The American contributors analyzed history of bilateral relations, and showed how the messianic idea manifested itself in American and Russian (Soviet) policies. Reading this monograph, Americans can get a more clear idea of how Russian experts evaluate behavior of the United States, and how they explain Russia’s actions and decisions. The authors conclude that though the issue of misperception and misunderstanding is often characterized as the main reason for aggravation of tension in bilateral relations the situation should be explained by dramatic divergences of Russian and American interests, in their vision of the future world order and its institutions. The United States refuses to change its strategy of constructing liberal world order with the use of military methods, and Russia refuses to recognize America’s absolute right to consolidate America-centered order. Their positions make it impossible to have constructive dialogue and interaction. American actions bring instability into bilateral relations and relations with other countries, make international situation fraught with conflicts. The authors see their task in encouraging bilateral dialogue with their American colleagues, first, with those in the United States who are interested and willing to change the situation. 

Keywords
Russia, USА, post-Soviet space, Eurasian integration, Asia-Pacific region, world order, Russian-American relations, cooperation in space, conglomerate-enclave theory.

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Content No. 2, 2019

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