Russia and the United States: Reflecting on the Conflict

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, since the collapse of bipolarity, relations between Russia and the United States have been constantly moving back and forth between limited cooperation and limited conflict. The logic of this movement and its trajectory are determined by cultural–psychological, internal political, and international factors. All three levels of factors are examined, along with the conflictual nature of Russian–American relations and prospects for their further development. Apparently, competing messianic concepts, radically different internal political processes, a lack of firm economic ties, and rivalry at the international level are preventing both countries from changing the existing trajectory of relations.

KEYWORDS:

• conflict nature
• mutual images
• messianic concepts
• misunderstanding
• different political models
• reliance on personal contact
• rivalry
• transformation of the World Order

This article is the republished version of:

Russia and the United States: Reflecting on the Conflict

Notes

English translation © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2017 “Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia.” “Rosiia i SShA: razmyshliaia nad konfliktom,” Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, 2017, no. 5, pp. 5–13.

Viktoria Yur’evna Zhuravleva, candidate of political science, is the Head of Research Group for US and Foreign Policy at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO).

The article has been supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, project 151830069, “World Order Crisis: Expert Community Answers.”

Translated by Simon Patterson. Translation reprinted from Russian Politics and Law, vol. 55, no. 6. DOI: 10.1080/10611940.2017.1574499.

1. This article does not aim to study the national identity of the two countries. In her analysis, the author relies fully on the works of the outstanding Russian American studies specialist Eduard Yakolevich Batalov.