Posted on 03/23/2014 7:00:06 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The decision by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to annex Crimea ended the post-Cold War era in Europe. Since the late Gorbachev-Reagan years, the era was defined by zigzags of cooperation and disputes between Russia and the West, but always with an underlying sense that Russia was gradually joining the international order. No more.
Our new era is one defined by ideological clashes, nationalistic resurgence and territorial occupation — an era in some ways similar to the tragic periods of confrontation in 20th-century Europe. And yet there are important differences, and understanding the distinction will be critical to a successful American foreign policy in the coming decades.
We did not seek this confrontation. This new era crept up on us, because we did not fully win the Cold War. Communism faded, the Soviet Union disappeared and Russian power diminished. But the collapse of the Soviet order did not lead smoothly to a transition to democracy and markets inside Russia, or Russia’s integration into the West.
Some Russians pushed forward on this enormous agenda of revolutionary change. And they produced results: the relatively peaceful (so far) collapse of the Soviet empire, a Russian society richer than ever before, greater protection of individual rights and episodically functioning democratic institutions.
But the simultaneity of democracy’s introduction, economic depression and imperial loss generated a counterrevolutionary backlash — a yearning for the old order and a resentment of the terms of the Cold War’s end.
Proponents of this perspective were not always in the majority. And the coming to power of an advocate of this ideology — Mr. Putin — was not inevitable. Even Mr. Putin’s own thinking changed over time, waffling between nostalgia for the old rule and realistic acceptance of Russia’s need to move forward.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I would imagine McFaul was one of the many writers at the Slimes who scoffed when Romney said he considered Russia our greatest international threat.
Let them eat their scoff.
FUputin!!!
the guys who said putin would never do what he did, now pose as experts on how to respond...
“McFail” is right. He seems to have a selective memory.
Any analysis that doesn’t lay a good deal of the blame for the current situation in Ukraine at Obama’s feet is flawed.
This will come as quite a disappointment to some on this board (as it has to Mr. Obama); Putin is really not a nice guy.
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