Relations With Russia Can Be Helpful
With President Obama in Russia dealing with issues of all sorts of severity, a simple question has been posed: why are relations with Russia so important? I look at the United States and Russia throughout the previous seventy years and it’s not all that difficult to understand that there have always been some problems between the two countries. We had a Cold War from the end of World War II until the “wall came down.”
Since we’ve always been shy of friends, why should Americans care about having relations with Russia?
First and foremost, Russia has got a lot of natural resources. While Russia doesn’t exploit them all that well, it does have a lot of them. Because of this, Russia has the opportunity to really grow their economy and see things boom there. Strong economies help strong economies. With that in mind, Russia’s economy getting stronger would only be able to further help America’s economy get stronger. If relations are icy, things will stay bad. I heard a story about how Russians will smuggle American clothing in to sell it because no one sells it. If relations were to warm up, that may no longer be the case. It would help both economies.
Let’s move on to the next big topic: war. If the United States and Russia went to war, it would be cataclysmic. There are a ton of nuclear weapons in both countries’ arsenal. In layman’s terms, a war between the two countries could be the effective end to modern civilization as we know it. Why? If even one nuke was launched by anyone in either country who was feeling mutinous, it would become a domino effect of the countries shooting back and forth.
Even if nukes were left out of the picture, both countries can field advanced militaries (America, more than Russia, but Russia has numbers). These advanced militaries would obliterate each other. I could see a war between America and Russia being the costliest war in lives since World War II.
Finally, by having strong relations with Russia, the United States might be able to help keep stability in the Eastern European/Asian countries. The United States might have more pull over whether or not Russia should invade a country like Georgia. But most importantly, if things are good between the United States and Russia, there’s a good chance that they’ll be on our side when dealing with rogue dictatorships such as North Korea and Iran. They won’t be willing to work with countries that are interested in destroying us because of their good relations with us.
Do I think that having a strong relation with Russia is the most important issue? Absolutely not. However, it is something that can only do some good for the United States’ foreign policy. We’re meddling in the entire world’s affairs. Having an ally like Russia instead of an enemy like Russia can only benefit America. It’ll give us a little more security in that very hostile area. Fortunately, things are warming up. Russia did give America permission to have planes fly over their land to bring supplies to Afghanistan. That’s an improvement.
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I have a few issues concerning your final argument in relations with Russia. We have already adopted most of Russia’s surrounding countries into NATO and Russia is philosophically realist and views that with hostility. These countries agreed to join NATO because are fearful of an aggressive Russia- they did this to distance themselves from their neighbor and ally themselves with us mostly for our protection. There would certainly be an uproar from countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, etc. As a liberalist foreign policy supporter I fully believe we do need to improve our relations with Russia and believe strongly in a mutual cooperation between us and them, but there are many hurdles which fall in front of us than simply allying with them. You argue there would be more stability but actually it could cause more controversy and potential instability in the region. NATO’s existence, even with the collapse of the Soviet Union, is still meant to counter Russia’s control in the area. Until relations drastically improve between Russia and its neighboring countries we will have a continuing tug of war between the interests of both parties.
I disagree that NATO’s existence is meant to counter Russia’s control in the area. NATO has been spending the past twenty some-odd years trying to figure out what the heck to do. With the collapse of the USSR, there was nothing for NATO to do. They have spent time trying to help nations that were once under USSR control, but I don’t know if I agree that their job is to still put that line in Russia.
As for causing more instability…I am not sure. There is one geopolitical thinker that suggests that stability will come from Poland and that Poland will actually become a superpower in the coming years. This theorist also suggests that we will enter another Cold War with Russia in the next couple of decades. Whether or not that is true, I am not sure. Do I see an alliance with Russia being ideal? Yes. Practical? Probably not.