International Relations between the USA and Russia - Literature review Example

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN USA AND RUSSIA By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date International Relations between USA and Russia Introduction The US and Russia international relations have just entered a new political season in an imperfect shape. All through 2011, and particularly 2012 the relations between the two countries deteriorated further. Russia and US political leadership is disappointed and irritated with one another. For this reason, much political capital will have to be invested by both countries so as to improve their relations and also they should lessen their foreign policies’ priority. In this literature review the focus is on the international relations between United States of America and Russia. Review of the Literature According to Suslov (2013, 3), the cycle nature has been the key feature of the international relations between US and Russia since the Cold War ended. All new efforts of building a partnership that is sustainable has not been successful leading to further deterioration of the relations between the two countries. Certainly, every time the relations of the two countries improve, it only lasts between two and three years as evidenced by US-Russia relations ‘reset’ the under Presidents Medvedev and Obama. Moscow and Washington were experiencing remarkable and visible progress between 2009 and 2010, which was marked numerous successes, but by 2011 the improving relations became more inconsistent and mixed. As a consequence, it resulted in a steady growth of irritation between the US and Russia and the relations’ political atmosphere have since then become worse. This was also reminiscent of the earlier periods. Both in the 1990-s and in the 2000-s shorts periods of the relations improvement was followed by longer periods of gradual and slow degradation lasting for 4-5 years, and only afterwards there came a profound crisis (Suslov 2013, 3). The degradation periods were marked by stagnating positive agenda and growing share of the negative one, gradual movement of the relations centre of political gravity to the latter, as well as slow but steady deterioration of political atmosphere. Russia’s desire to be a strategic international power defines its actions within the international arena, especially in regards to the United States. In the past, the relationship between the U.S. and Russia as mentioned by Perez (2014, 1) has been tainted by extreme lows and highs, competiveness as well as the sporadic common interest. Such factors are until now describing the current relationship between the two counties, since both U.S. and Russia have not been able to forge any form of strategic or meaningful relations, in spite of their efforts to realise it. Certainly, when Medvedev and Obama decided to change how Moscow and Washington were interacting, the world was duped that tensions between the two countries would diminish. Still, in spite of this rhetoric, neither side made substantial effort to respect, account for or recognize the worldviews as well as ideology defining both countries. Perez (2014, 2) argues that the reset policy successes do not indicate an outstanding change between the U.S. and Russia, but instead, mirrors their capability to collaborate on areas where they can benefit mutually. According to Troitskiy (2013, 3) there no substantive debate in the Russian and U.S. policymaking communities with regard to impact of China on U.S. and Russia relations. According to Troitskiy (2013, 4) the ties between Moscow and Beijing is developing rapidly. Still, scores of observers are still doubtful concerning the likelihood of relations between Russia and China developing into a complete alliance, considering that there are many policy inconsistencies between both countries. According to a number of scholars as cited by Troitskiy (2013, 1), the US should not be worried about the possible fallout of Chinese-Russian rapprochement on the Washington policy toward Moscow. Still, international strategies changes of China and Russia, and the overall environment of international security contradicts the scholars’ assertions. Recently, Moscow and Beijing have progressively coordinated their positions on crucial international issues which often contradicts US foreign polices as evidenced by their support on Iran’s nuclear program and Bashar al-Assad regime. Besides that, China and Russia always speak similar language on various issues related to Asian politics. In consequence, policymakers in U.S. have decided to avoid provoking China, since U.S is more exposed to China’s antagonistic behaviour. Besides that, Washington has not been able to handle the overlapping issues in U.S.-Russia relations has to some extent strengthened the Moscow and Beijing relations. Katz (2014, 129) posits that the annexing of Crimea by Russia in spite of the objection from Western countries and the US, basically terminated the hopes by Obama administration for a ‘reset’ in relations between the US and Russia that could have led to cooperation between Moscow and Washington on a number of foreign policy as well as other international issues. Certainly, Crimea is just part of the issues that Moscow and Washington disagree on; however, the forceful action by Putin to annex Crimea and the likelihood of Moscow pursuing similar actions in other countries aside from Ukraine increases the likelihood of expansionist Russia that’s seeks to improve its own security by means of destabilising other countries’ security. Besides that, there is an ongoing difference between Russia as well as the US on a number of other issues, which includes the role of NATO, Syria and Georgia; therefore, a new cold war between the two countries appears to emerge. In spite of all this, the early belief by Obama regime that the cooperation between US and Russia was possible was not certainly impractical (Katz 2014, 130). Without a doubt, collaboration between the two countries has been pursued by a number of regimes since the end of Cold War, but the hopes have been anchored on the fact that both Russia and U.S have a number of common interests. Weitz (2015, 5) thinks that the relations between Moscow and Washington will not improve anytime soon; however different short-term strategic deals can be envisaged by the U.S. and Russian officials. Considering that the long-term goals for Europe as well as other issues at the international arena are extremely different and mismatched. Both leaders as well believe that they can manage the lengthy persistent cold ties between the two countries, but officials from US believe that their country may achieve its international agenda devoid of active support from Russia (Katz 2014, 5). On the other hand, Russian leaders hold the view that the Western sanctions imposed on Russia can be reduced if they expand their economic ties with their allies such as China. Still, economic and social relations between Russians as well as Americans are yet to be fully developed due to their size of national economies and populations. As mentioned by Pifer (2009, 9), Russians normally measure their ability by comparing itself with the US, which is recognized as the world’s superpower. The outcome of this comparison is a combination of anger, frustration as well as envy. Russian foreign policy discussion is much focussed on the U.S than on China, Europe, and other countries. Because of the Moscow criticism on Washington as its policies, as exhibited by the Russian broadcast media, Pifer (2009, 10) posits that such discussions have largely impacted the US-Russian relations. Summary In summary, this literature review has focused on the international relations between United States of America and Russia. As cited above, the relationship between US and Russia plays a crucial role in the world affairs, but for decades has remained tense. Still, the two countries have collaborated on areas where they have mutual interests. But Russia appears to be more ambitions and desires to be recognised as a superpower just like the United States. Bibliography Katz, Mark N. "Can Russian-US Relations Improve?" Strategic Studies Quarterly, 2014: 129-141. Perez, Alexandra. Russian Relations With The United States Since the 2009 Reset. Reserach Paper, San Diego, CA : University of San Diego, 2014. Pifer, Steven. Reversing the Decline: An Agenda for U.S.-Russian Relations in 2009. POLICY PAPER, W, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2009. Suslov, Dmitry. The US-Russia Relations after the 'Reset': Pragmatism or a New Confrontation? Working Paper, Moscow: National Research University Higher School of Economics, 2013. Troitskiy, Mikhail. The China Factor in U.S.-Russia Relations. PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo, PONARS Eurasia: Moscow, 2013. Weitz, Richard. U.S.-Russ ian Relations Beyond Ukraine. Washington, D.C: Center on Global Interests, 2015. Read More