Pivotal States: Russia and U.S. Global Strategy

Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has brought bilateral relations with the United States to their lowest point since the Cuban missile crisis. Yet Russia remains a global actor that holds immense sway over a wide variety of other U.S. foreign policy priorities, including strategic competition with China, challenges with Iran and North Korea, and safeguarding the health of the global economy. Faced with this new reality, how can U.S. policymakers support security in Europe while also making progress on their other foreign policy objectives where Russia matters? And with Vladimir Putin claiming to be at war with the West, how might the United States avert catastrophe with Russia?

Please join the director of the Carnegie Endowment’s American Statecraft Program, Christopher S. Chivvis, for an in-person edition of the Pivotal States series and a discussion of Washington’s strategic alternatives in its policy toward Russia with Fiona Hill and Andrew S. Weiss. The event will also stream concurrently on the Carnegie Endowment’s YouTube channel.


The Carnegie Endowment advances international peace by leveraging its global network to shape debates and provide decisionmakers with independent insights and innovative ideas on the most consequential global threats and opportunities.



#foreignpolicy #CarnegieEndowment

[matthiasniklaus]

Very interessting and intelligent discussions. Many thanks!

[henriikkak]

58:05 Fiona Hill on Finland, Europe's new security order, and the United States's role in it.

Everyone says that Finland and Sweden joining NATO was a reaction to the full-scale war in Ukraine but that's only half the truth. It was actually a reaction to the collapse of the post-Cold War security order in Europe, of which the escalation of Russian aggression was an indication of.

Albeit more optimistic, the situation was similar in the 1990s when the communist bloc collapsed. It was understood that it was a pivotal moment. Europe was entering a new era and Finns wanted to be present at the table where the decisions regarding the future of the continent were made.

You know, we may be small but we take our national security and geopolitics very seriously. We're not going to allow major players to discuss over our heads without taking our interests into consideration. We've been fairly successful in that aspect too. Finland constantly punches above its weight diplomatically.

So, the nation has long been a proponent of defence cooperation within the EU framework. If the United States continues to be isolationist or an unreliable partner -- which, let's be honest, it has been for more than just the past eight or so months -- Finland and like-minded allies are going to push European interests more strongly within the NATO framework as well. We simply cannot leave European security up to the American electorate. Waiting for Trump, Putin, or Xi to choke on a grape is not a sufficient strategy.

Where that leaves the USA is not clear. It's possible that something happens and it gets sucked back in (more) or something happens and Europe needs to start paying closer attention to Asia.

That, or there will be a European NATO.

[kwame]

Who are these guys thinking they have the moral high ground? 😂

[lechkonradpowichrowski]

Rather hallucinating is the discussion on deterrence without defining more precisely what are the weaknesses of Russia. If the West considers there's none, so even the best diplomacy and the best understanding of Russia's global leverage is a completely helpless venture. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. The West is even unable to sequester the Russian financial assets outside Russia, so let's stop playing innocent choir children. I gave only one example. You will tell ot's devilishly difficult to achieve. If so, we are all doomed. Be coherent, otherwise no strategy building is possible.

[stefanschwarzbonn]

🟥 HOW? (10:30 minutes!)

do you expect your upload of such an important conversation to YouTube be viewed by as many viewers as it would deserve when you are so very much impolite as unprofessional that you let the viewers wait for more than ten long minutes before anything starts happening on the screen?
I'm stunned. Hopefully your donors are as well.

Let's see how long it'll take to get back to normal professionalism.

I'm ready to take that comment down when I see that you've corrected this mess.

Otherwise: Very useful events and conversations.

Cheers from Germany

Stefan Schwarz

Director European Balkan Institute
Für Member of Parliament / Defense Committee / Subcommittee UN
Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo, Bosnia

[joancramer]

Thanks so much for this conversation. I think it is so important that we acknowledge our past mistakes and atrocities and prove again and again that we will never do again what we condemn in others. The sad thing is partisanship. Unfortunately the right, perhaps buoyed by refugees here (Cubans, Venezuelans) and a kind of anti-intellectualism and anti-internationalism that results in an unwillingness to learn from or listen to the rest of the world--not to mention fear--has so often dragged us into our most grievous mistakes -- "shock and awe, " for instance.

[felipe-vibor]

I'd love to see them discuss Iraq

[trogdortpennypacker]

To be honest I'm always amused by the Russians. They are the ultimate underdog mischief makers and they are just relentless.They totally gifted China years to quietly go under the radar and build their strength, while we messed about in the backwater fringes of Europe.

[mariakatariina]

You still have not paid reparations in gold to me.

[SecretSquirrel]

russia is just a builder of tanks financed by oil sales and will be dealt with as such

[SonaliGurpur]

I am hoping that you can possibly ask your guests for their opinion on the following subjects-
1) Is it possible that "Russia" and "Putin" are not synonymous and interchangeable?

2) Is it very, very probable that Lavrov and many other Russians in high positions are perfectly decent people, highly competent, very well read, very humane, but giving off POW vibes we are not picking up on. It's entirely possible that bad actors have a gun, or energy weapons, or lasers directed at them and their kids and their bank accounts, right? And there's always kompromat and fake sex tapes, followed by fake witnesses.

3) How likely is it that this infection of atrocious behavior is now affecting the Indian government as well?

4) Do you have friends in the FDA, military, DARPA, CIA. FBI, Google, Tesla....that you might be able to talk to about questions 1, 2, and 3?