Saiwania wrote:Ashmoria wrote:Russia will never be on our side.
There is still plenty of common ground to be found. How is Russia being against ISIS in Syria not a good thing? The way to have a successful foreign policy with Russia is to simply treat them as the country they are- a world power with their own self interests like the US does.
Russia's deal is that its people have never ever seen themselves as inferior to the US in any way, they consider themselves as an equal but the US' foreign policy has a bad habit of belittling them. Russia is no longer lost in the wilderness like it was in the 1990's, they've recovered and are arguably less of an enemy to the US than China, yet China has a ton of trade with the US, despite the fact that China pretty much does nothing but wage economic warfare against the US. Stealing patents and copyrights left and right.
Imagine a world where the US, China, and Russia, along with every other major power, is on the same page with regards to certain things: green energy revolution, nuclear disarmament, and getting rid of Islamic fundamentalism the world over. Why shouldn't a more stable and inclusive world order be made when it very much is possible? It definitely won't be brought about by only ever being hostile to your competitors.
Russia is a state in decline, with a declining population, mass alcoholism, nearly ubiquitous corruption and is more oligarchic than democratic. It has an economy heavily reliant on petrol, a declining industry (it was in part due to the drop in oil prices in the 80s that brought the USSR tumbling down) and has an economy slightly larger than Spain's regardless, which is about a 18th of the US's and a 11th of China's. It is not cut out to be a world power, and if it tries again it will only divert resources from fixing the many domestic issue it faces, again. Putin is a strongman using the West and tribalism as a boogeyman to placate his people and distract them from their crappy lives. Russia is a state in decline, that needs to get its house in order before I see it as anything more than a pariah state trying to relive its glory days to avoid facing the dire situation it find itself in. Russia is not a stabilizing force, but a polarizing one.
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