Ten ways the new US-Russian Cold War is increasingly becoming more dangerous than the one we survived.
June 21, 2018
Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (You can find previous instalments, now in their fifth year, at TheNation.com.)
Recent reports suggest that a formal meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is being seriously discussed in Washington and Moscow. Such ritualized but often substantive “summits,” as they were termed, were frequently used during the 40-year US-Soviet Cold War too, among other things, reduce conflicts and increase cooperation between the two superpowers.
They were most important when tensions were highest. Some were very successful, some less so, others were deemed failures.
Given today’s extraordinarily toxic political circumstances, even leaving aside powerful opposition in Washington (including inside the Trump administration) to any cooperation with the Kremlin, we may wonder if anything positive would come from a Trump-Putin summit.
But it is necessary, even imperative, that Washington and Moscow try.
The reason should be clear. As Cohen first began to argue in 2014, the new Cold War is more dangerous than was its predecessor, and steadily becoming even more so.
It’s time to update, however briefly, the reasons, of which there are already at least ten…
Continue reading this extremely important analysis at The Nation, published on June 6, 2018
