Greg Austin, Simon Saradzhyan, Daniel Bautista, and Jeff Procak
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Russia and the US agree on many more security issues than cause dispute between them. Neither expects war or major conflict with the other as an act of deliberate policy. The two states agree they are not military enemies. They have no military strategic interests of a bilateral nature that are fundamentally antagonistic.
At month's end, Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., will lead a U.S.-Russia Inter parliamentary Group is one of the few open channels for a broad dialogue by the two countries on the state of the badly frayed relationship. The visit, therefore, on the heels of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent meetings in Moscow, presents an important opportunity for the United States and Russia to pull back from an emerging pattern of unnecessary and possibly dangerous disputation.