Empire Envy: Russia-US Relations Post 9/11

Abstract

Russia-US relations have been the focus of much attention recently, in light of the US-led “war on terror” in Afghanistan and the 2003 war in Iraq. There is concern, in many world capitals, including Moscow, for the implications of American unilateralism in the international system. This paper argues that in the absence of a clear sense of a new Russian identity and subsequently, collective agreement on the national interest, Russian policy makers rely, in part, on the legacy of the Cold War relationship between Moscow and Washington to influence their orientations toward America. As a result, a competitive mentality remains, thirteen years after the end of the Cold War, and as the US asserts its role as the last remaining global superpower, Russia attempts to balance this power, and does so through the promotion of multilateralism in its Foreign Policy Concept, and through its position on the expansion of NATO into East-Central Europe and its opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003. As regards these two issues, Russian foreign policy may be viewed as a direct reaction to its perception of the consolidation of American hegemonic power in the international system.