Russia in Global Affairs

Thirty years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, we have moved towards a world in which all countries are becoming protective of their economies and trying to pass the burden of declining outputs and unemployment onto others.

Donald Trump enters the second year of his presidency as one of the most controversial politicians in the US history. Opinions vary greatly, but one thing is clear: the past year has been marked by fundamental changes in the United States’ domestic and foreign policy, with many results of the previous administration virtually wiped out.

Russian and U.S. leaders have choices of far greater portent than either appears to realize. Narrow preoccupations, occluded politics, and the ascendance of small-minded thinking on both sides at all levels may be inescapable. If so, the great powers will again sleepwalk through defining moments of history—and pay a price.

If the larger picture defies prediction, the immediate future is scarcely more transparent. In the U.S. case, the known unknowns are numerous. They begin with the question of how much deck furniture Trump is willing to overturn in order to pursue an “America First” strategy.