Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

assertive in its foreign policy (Åslund 7). After 9/11, Russia supported the United States in its fight against
Al Qaeda, hoping to gain more leverage and take on a greater role within international relations. The
United States, however, continued to consider Russia as a relatively weak player and not as the great power
that Russia envisions itself to be (Alcaro 3).
In the 2000s, numerous events led to the further break down of trust between Russia and the
United States. Cold war perceptions and mistrust persist, furthering perceptions of actions on both sides as
threatening and aggressive. Perceptions that the United States took advantage of Russia during the 1990s
are common within Russia, and rhetoric blaming the United States for troubles within Russia is relatively
common. Many actions of the United States, NATO, and the European Union (EU) have been seen as
attempts to further isolate or ‘encircle’ Russia, such as NATO’s eastern enlargement, the Orange
Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, US plans for a missile defense system in the
Czech Republic and Poland, and U.S. recognition of Kosovo’s independence (Alcaro 3).
President Bush’s support for Ukraine and Georgia’s bid for NATO membership further angered
Russia. In March 2007, the United States Congress passed the NATO Freedom Consolidation Act,
supporting NATO enlargement to include Ukraine and Georgia, as well as states in the Western Balkans
(Lazarevic 47). Relations with Russia reached a new low for the post-Cold War period with the Georgian
war in August of 2008, leading many to fear that a new cold war was unavoidable (Alcaro 3). Even so,
Russia, the United States, and the EU expressed their discontent with the trend toward a breakdown of
diplomacy, hinting at the possibility of improved relations.
NATO Expansion: Threat to Russia?
In order to develop a new approach to Russia, the United States must attempt to understand the
ways in which Russia views the United States and interprets its actions. NATO expansion has been an issue
of growing contention for Russia with each of the three waves of NATO enlargement since the end of the
Cold War. Western Europe and the United States have generally seen European integration through the
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