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Growing Confrontation Between Russia and the West: Russia’s Challenge to the Post-Cold War Order

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The Russian Challenge to the European Security Environment

Abstract

In the second chapter, ‘Growing Confrontation Between Russia and the West: Russia’s Challenge to the Post-Cold War Order’, Suzanne Loftus and Roger Kanet track the gradual deterioration of Russian-US relations, with emphasis on Russia’s growing resistance to what it sees as direct challenges to Russian interests. Over time, as its resource base improved, Russia has been more assertive in challenging Western initiatives. The confrontation is based not only in part on great power competition but also on very different conceptions of the nature of governance, at both the state and the international levels. Loftus and Kanet are not confident that relations will improve in the near future, short of Western acceptance of Russia’s expanded role in Eurasian and global security.

An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meetings of the International Studies Association, Atlanta, Georgia, on the panel entitled ‘Peace or Conflict in Eurasia: Challenges to the Existing Security Environment in Eurasia,’ 16 March 2016.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The issue of the emergence of a new multipolar world order is of major importance for Russian analysts. See, for example, Fyodor Lukyanov’s introduction to a series of articles on this topic (2016). Moreover, the decision of the British people to leave the EU adds another important factor to the mix. Although the results for the EU’s place in the global system are not at all clear, it is safe to imply that Europe’s role in world affairs, including its relations with the Russian Federation, will not strengthen in the foreseeable future, as the organization focuses on the complexities of the ‘divorce’.

  2. 2.

    Russian bombing attacks on rebel groups in support of the Assad government’s campaign to regain control of the city of Aleppo are evidence of Soviet objectives – that is, the reassertion of control over areas under rebel control (Coffee 2016).

  3. 3.

    In fall 2015, Presidents Obama and Putin traded accusations concerning intervention in Syria (Eilperin and DeYoung 2015).

  4. 4.

    Robert Kaplan has argued that the Russian Federation is likely to collapse because of its internal problems and, thus, concludes that Russia’s expanded role is ephemeral (Kaplan 2016).

  5. 5.

    In early February 2016, Prime Minister Medvedev said that the expansion of Saudi-led involvement in Syria, in conjunction with the West, had the potential of leading to a Third World War (Medvedev 2016).

  6. 6.

    Richard Sakwa notes that what he terms the ‘new Atlanticism’ represents a Western commitment to exporting Western values that, in turn, challenge Russia’s role in former Soviet space (Sakwa 2015).

  7. 7.

    For discussions of status and respect as determinants of Russian foreign policy see the work of Tsygankov (2012), Feklyunina (2012), Heller (2012), Moulioukova and Kanet (2015), and others.

  8. 8.

    In a speech justifying Russian military intervention in Georgia, then President Medvedev noted that Russian foreign policy was based on five principles, one of which was the fact that former Soviet space was a region of ‘privileged’ Russian interests. See Medvedev (2008) and Berryman (2011).

  9. 9.

    Several recent volumes focus on this contest for influence in what is the common neighborhood of both Russia and the EU. See, for example, Piet and Simão (2016); Kanet and Sussex (2015); Kanet and Freire (2012). See the interesting study of a group of scholars from Romania (Chifu and Tutuiano 2017).

  10. 10.

    For discussions on Europe’s dependence on Russia for energy supplies and the attempts to generate a common EU-wide approach to energy relations with the Russian Federation, see Moulioukova-Kanet (2015), and Feklyunina (2012). Right-wing nationalist parties in Europe have been supported increasingly by the Russians (Polyakova 2016).

  11. 11.

    For discussions of the factors leading to the war, see March (2012), Dunlop (2012), and Nygren (2011).

  12. 12.

    One of the many useful analyses of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict is that by Menon and Rumer (2015).

  13. 13.

    For the argument that the demonization of Putin and other pressures on Russia are not likely to have the impact of shifting Russian policy, see the cogent article by Tsygankov (2016b).

  14. 14.

    According to polls in spring 2016, 82 percent of Russians supported President Putin’s current policies. (Interfax 2016).

  15. 15.

    The previous discussion draws upon Kolesnikov (2016a, 2016b). For an assessment of the growth of authoritarianism in Putin’s Russia during his second term as president, see Umland (2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Suzanne Loftus & Roger E. Kanet

Authors
  1. Suzanne Loftus
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  2. Roger E. Kanet
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Correspondence to Suzanne Loftus .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

    Roger E. Kanet

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Loftus, S., Kanet, R.E. (2017). Growing Confrontation Between Russia and the West: Russia’s Challenge to the Post-Cold War Order. In: Kanet, R. (eds) The Russian Challenge to the European Security Environment . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50775-0_2

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