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Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Authors: Alexander Orlov, Director, Institute for International Studies, Moscow State Institute (Uni-
versity) of International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Victor Mizin, leading research associate, Institute for International Studies
TODAY'S INTENSE CONFRONTATION between
Russia and the West is causing increasing anxiety both
among political experts and among ordinary people all
over the world. Polemics between the two sides tend to
be sharper than propaganda philippics of the Cold War
era. 1
The euphoria of the 1990s over the "end of history"
with the standoff between the two world systems being
over and replaced by an ideology of "a new security
space from Vladivostok to Lisbon" made political elites on both sides of the destroyed Iron Curtain
think that the division of Europe into two parts was a thing of the past and that foundations were
being laid for a "common European home," a continent without dividing lines and borders based
on hostility.
Russia and the West no longer perceived each other as adversaries in a potential conflict. At the
same time, the West no longer saw Russia as a serious geopolitical player with military, political, and
other interests that might have run against Western principles and Western ideas of the post-Cold
War world structure. Russia was in effect consigned to the modest role of a backyard, if territorially
large, country that was to be tutored by the West on its foreign, defense, and economic policies and
on all other vital matters.2
This role implied that Russia would silently put up with unfriendly moves that the West has been
making for the past 15 to 20 years with unconvincing, not to say absurd, explanations. In this period,
NATO has nearly doubled in size, coming right up to Russian borders; the United States has with-
drawn from its Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia and instead has been building a unilateral
global missile defense with an infrastructure spreading to various, including European, countries,
developing the prompt global strike project and setting up military bases; principal Western countries
have continuously been enlarging their military budgets; and there have been persistent efforts to
oust Russia from its historical spheres of influence.
Unilaterally assuming the role of world policeman, the United States and its most zealous satellites
began to impose their own rules on various parts of the planet.
Our fears that this policy would have unpredictable and extremely dangerous consequences were
ignored as figments of our imagination.
Many political scientists believe that the world is moving toward a new, comprehensive phase of
confrontation that, in some respects such as internal dynamics, would be similar to some extremely
dangerous aspects of the Cold War.
Thereby the West departs from objective principles and methods of analysis that are generally ac-
cepted in the scholarly world, and not only there either. It deliberately ignores causalities and takes
Russia and the West: Time for Détente 2.0