Celebrating 90 Years - Foreign Policy Association

Relations Between Russia
and the United States
72 | FOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION
(Continued)
In the same period, at the end of the Cold
War, the United States found itself in a different
position. You had more options than we did.
The situation after the collapse of the Soviet
Union allowed the United States to choose
how it would act in international relations.
Unfortunately, it took fifteen years to begin
to realize that the end of the Cold War had
radically changed the world for all countries,
without exception. Moreover, I would venture
to say that the former perception of American
leadership started to give way even within the
western community.
In the geopolitical terms of the past, the
end of the bipolar world and the dramatic
change in the international landscape looked
very much like a geopolitical catastrophe for the
United States as well. President Putin said that
the collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest
geopolitical catastrophe of the 20 th century.
He was hugely criticized as dreaming of the
times when the Soviet Union had all its nuclear
weapons. But he meant something different.
He meant that we all lost our country. Still, it
was our country, and I believe that people can
understand this. He meant this: God forbid
that you ever have to live through the same
Today, global challenges are com-
ing to the forefront, and nobody
can counter them efficiently alone.
We have to deal more and more
with phenomena rather than with
threats from individual states.
situation. His statement is true for many other
countries, including the United States. The
United States certainly has found itself alone
with the huge temptation to do many things
at the same time, but not everything works as
it was intended to. I believe our problems are
mutual. The problems caused by the end of the
Cold War and by the way it ended are common
problems of the world, although these problems
may present themselves differently in different
countries.
We are convinced that today’s national
interests should be cleared of all artificial
ideological motives and should become the
reference point of the international process.
Quite some time ago, European countries
arrived at such a conclusion, after having
experienced the bloodshed of religious wars on
the continent. The Cold War was a rollback,
with national interests sacrificed for the sake of
ideology. If we could overcome the legacy of a
terror of ideological confrontation, each country
could again rely firmly on its vital and pragmatic
interests, while respecting similar interests of
others.
Today, global challenges are coming to
the forefront, and nobody can counter them
efficiently alone. We have to deal more and
more with phenomena rather than with threats
from individual states. The significance and
efficiency of military power in international
relations, I would add, is objectively decreasing.
Globalization has gone beyond the boundaries of
western civilization, which can also be attributed
to the end of the Cold War. Today competition
assumes a civilizational dimension and generally
global character. The current situation is
absolutely different from that which prevailed
during the Cold War, when competition took
place within the framework of one civilization