Posted on 06/06/2006 11:22:15 PM PDT by vertolet
Relations between the US and Russia are deteriorating badly and there is a danger of conflict in the flashpoints of the south Caucasus, according to senior former officials and corporate leaders advising the EastWest Institute (EWI).
EWI board members at the think-tank's annual meeting in Charleston were almost unanimous in calling for moves to prevent what one called an emerging "cold peace" between the US and Russia.
John Mroz, founder and president of EWI, called the deterioration worrisome. He placed the trend in the context of growing distrust between the major powers, including China, with the world in a state of transition between globalised and marginalised societies "no longer on automatic pilot moving towards a market-centric world".
This had resulted in the rise of ethnic and nationalist identities, with growing numbers seeing globalisation threatening their cultures and religion.
Western societies were also losing their moral authority, he said, citing the example of the reported massacre of Iraqi civilians by US troops in Haditha which would inflict "enormous damage" on the US.
Several speakers - who under EWU guidelines spoke on condition of anonymity - expressed concerns that "populist" presidents in Taiwan and Georgia risked overplaying their nationalist hands and triggering military incidents or conflict between the US and China, and the US and Russia.
With Montenegro newly independent, and Kosovo on the way to statehood, the dangers of domino-style conflict were rising in the breakaway, Russian-backed enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.
"Georgia is an alarming situation and worse than thought," said one former official.
"The mood is ugly and getting uglier," said a corporate executive on the state of US-Russia ties.
Noting that every declared US presidential candidate was "bashing Russia", one speaker predicted a worsening trend as both countries headed towards elections in 2008.
Established in 1980, EWI describes itself as a "do-tank", working mostly behind the scenes directly with governments to address global security concerns. In the mid-80s it arranged "non-meetings" of senior US and Soviet defence officials in Budapest to discuss confidence-building measures.
Under a new initiative, Germany has seconded Ortwin Hennig, a senior official dealing in conflict prevention, to EWI to head a task force on US-Russia relations. Washington and Moscow are also each appointing a senior diplomat to focus on the south Caucasus. EWI is working with diplomats from all sides preparing for the G8 summit in St Petersburg next month.
It was in 1938 when you said your parents fled... Oh wait a sec, if it wasn't under Soviet control just how were they victims of the Soviet-made famine. Get your story straight, fix your lies, and then resurface and post.
USSR? I guees you mean the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic... That's why you get so happy - it's your compratiots. Now everything is clear.
You're talkin' like Russia is a sovereign nation or something.
Interesting - don't you claim that was a private Freep mail you received from me? If so, don't you realize that posting private Freep mail publically is an offense people are banned for? Hmmmm..
We did, they listened - Yeltsin's economic advisors were from the Hoover Institute. It just doesn't work out in real life like it does on paper.
"We did, they listened - Yeltsin's economic advisors were from the Hoover Institute. It just doesn't work out in real life like it does on paper."
Yes and remember Egor Gaidar's "Shock Therapy" - had only it been given a chance to work. Instead then V.P. Rutskoj and others decided to take Parliament and at that moment erased any chances for any forward movement out of the quagmire of corruption.
Yes. The shock therapy was a success, the patient died.
I can't think of a nation who has taken the cure that has been able to see it through to success.
Please God, don't let them stop those cute little Russkie women from escaping Russia by e-mailing any likely man in any country that is well-governed and could provide them a better future than their aberrant homeland can.
Oh great!! Does this mean that I have to go back to hiding under my school desk?
And when the TV shuts down, should I "turn to 1031 on my radio dial"?
I guess the Russian sale of fighters to Venezuela, various kinds of technology to Iran and North Korea, Russian atrocities (IOW, not just underwear on the head) in Chechnya, and the following, don't have anything to do with the cooling of relations:
''Intelligence Brief: Russia's Moves in Syria''
The Power and Interest News Report (PINR) | June 30th, 2006
Posted on 06/30/2006 2:10:53 AM PDT by M. Espinola
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1658282/posts
Whoops, sorry, I was going to post that to no one in particular.
John Mroz, founder and president of EWI, called the deterioration worrisome. He placed the trend in the context of growing distrust between the major powers, including China, with the world in a state of transition between globalised and marginalised societies "no longer on automatic pilot moving towards a market-centric world".Mroz' actually laments here that the world is no longer on "automatic pilot" to a single party state.
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