ISSN 2618-9844 (Online version)
ISSN 1810-6374 (Print version)
Washington’s unilateral actions on the global stage, far from yielding positive results in Afghanistan and Iraq, run counter to the objective processes in the international economy and politics. Since the end of the Cold War, the world has been leaning towards a multipolar power structure, and even the world’s mightiest nation is unable to reverse this trend.
At the end of 2016, both the political and expert communities in Russia appeared to be very pessimistic about the future of the world order in general, and the about the future of the West in particular.
This compilation is meant as a sampling of Graham’s views. The quotes below are divided into categories similar to those in Russia Matters’ news and analysis digests, reflecting the most pertinent topic areas for U.S.-Russian relations broadly and for drivers of the two countries’ policies toward one another.
In the political turmoil of recent years, the Ukrainian authorities have been harshly cracking down on the alternative historical memory kept by millions of people in the country. Even after the loss of Crimea and part of Donbass Ukraine cannot be considered a consolidated nation with one identity and a common view on history.
The establishment of independent Ukrainian and Belarusian statehood facilitates the development of Russia’s own national project, which is oriented towards the future, rather than towards the restoration of the past. Its key foreign policy feature is real sovereignty and the freedom of geopolitical maneuvering.
There is every reason to argue that the existing approach to strategic stability based on sustaining the state of mutually assured destruction has already become an impediment to the bilateral nuclear weapons reduction regime and is completely unfit for the transition to a multilateral framework of nuclear arms negotiations.
Overcoming the legacy of the Cold War, during which several generations grew up, proved much more difficult than was expected. That Russian-U.S. relations have been thrown far back does not meet anyone’s interests, but finding a way out of this impasse will take time, goodwill and breakthrough ideas.
Dialogue (in its original meaning) can hardly be regarded as an effective instrument for handling urgent political crises “right here and now.” Nevertheless, the “strategic,” communicative potential of dialogue, though in little demand today, remains significant.
What we should learn from the Russian Revolution as a major event in human history is that it was a concerted effort to get rid of that monster—capitalism. Capitalism produces enormous inequality and, as Marx predicted, misery at the bottom.
Against a background of shifting geoeconomic power from the West to the East, economic nationalism has become the development strategy that allows rising powers to reverse negative asymmetry in interdependent economic relationships.
New Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that after WWII Poland did not receive adequate compensation from Germany for the damage it had suffered and has the right to bring the topic of reparations to the agenda of Polish-German negotiations.
It claws and gnashes well above its weight. It can't kill a lion or an alligator, but it won't run away from them either. The honey badger is Russia in 2017.
Today German and French positions reflect much more the skepticism ingrained in the EU’s “five guiding principles for relations with Russia” than previous ideas of a strategic partnership with Moscow.
The European Union's political and economic outlook improved dramatically in 2017, following a year in which the bloc reeled from the United Kingdom's Brexit referendum and Donald Trump's election in the United States. But European leaders must not become complacent in 2018, or the EU could be thrown into crisis yet again the following year.
Identifying and Pursuing Interests in the EU-Russia Relationship.
EU and Russia do currently live and represent two distinct normative models in the world, and neither is likely to completely prevail over the other.
Before 2014, the majority of Ukrainians did not view the goal of European integration as a “national idea.” Even so, most Ukrainians had positive views about developing relations with and integrating into the EU.
Four years ago, Armenia’s failure to sign the EU Association Agreement was an early indication of the impending Ukraine crisis.
As Russia is approaching a point where economic and technological backwardness will become a real threat to its security and sovereignty, one possible option for it is a stealth strategy.
Geopolitical pluralism, in all its continentally and regionally uneven permutations is the global reality in what passes for ‘no one’s world’ (Charles Kupchan) and/or a ‘world in disarray’ (Richard Haas) when in fact, there is an evolving underlying logic to a multipolar landscape in what should be considered ‘everyone’s world.’
The Ukraine crisis became a major driver of the centrifugal relationship between Russia and the European Union, but it was not the starting point.
Current EU developments are an incentive for studying EU experience and reflecting on how to avoid their mistakes. All the more so now that other integration unions, particularly the Eurasian Economic Union, which is most important to Russia, are not making big strides.
The forces inclined to continue the “process” of ever-increasing, but never final, independence of Catalonia from Spain continue to play a crucial role in the politics of this region.
A key continent, Eurasia, could become a continent of cooperation in the 21st century.
On September 13, 2017, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker delivered his annual State of the Union address before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The address prompted significant reaction both within the EU and far beyond its borders.
Concerns over the global economic slowdown appear to be gradually receding this year as the global economy is set to muster an acceleration in growth on the back of a strong showing by the Eurozone, the US and China.
The preference of some countries to isolate themselves within their borders is anachronistic and self-defeating, but it would be a serious mistake for others, fearing contagion, to respond by imposing strict isolation. Even in states that have succumbed to reductionist discourses, much of the population has not.
The Spanish prime minister’s decision to invoke Article 155 of the Constitution will not entail a full-fledged suspension of autonomy, but will probably include the convening of elections in Catalonia in early 2018, putting the Catalan police under control of Spain’s Home Affairs Ministry.
Arctic remains one of the world’s last great, pristine and undeveloped areas. Equivalent to one-sixth of the world’s landmass, the region is home to just 4 million people. The region is rich in both renewable and non-renewable resources.
American-style globalization is being replaced not with its Asian variety, but a very harsh geopolitical reaction to protectionism as an antagonist of globalization.
Russia and China’s strategic military cooperation is becoming ever closer. President Putin has announced that Russia is helping China build an early warning system to spot intercontinental ballistic missile launches.
This year’s Annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington DC revealed a growing preoccupation with the mounting signs of a slowdown in the world economy.
Catherine the Great is credited with saying that the only way to secure the borders of the Russian Empire is to expand them continuously. This logic is to some degree applicable to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which embarked on a path of geographical enlargement quite literally from the very first days of its existence.
Developing the Russian Far East and Siberia has been an important step in state-building for Russia. Although there have been debates about appropriate ideas and policies in the strategy, developing the vast frontier region and promoting relations with Asian countries has set a steadfast direction of development for Russia. Chinese-Russian cooperation in the border region during the early stages of imperial Russia’s policies in the Far East holds enlightening significance for today’s bilateral cooperation.
The main objective for the Shinzo Abe administration’s active engagement in supporting the involvement of Japanese companies in the development of the Russian Far East is to create favourable environment for resolution of the territorial issue and conclusion of a peace treaty with Russia. Japan–Russia cooperation in the Russian Far East is part of Abe’s 8-point cooperation plan with Moscow.