U.S.-Russia Relations: Sliding towards Permanent Antagonism?

On February 14, 2018, the Fletcher Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy was pleased to host a talk by Dr. Nikolas Gvosdev.

Since the end of the Cold War, every U.S. president has taken office promising to improve U.S.-Russia relations — only to be disappointed. Given the current trajectory of relations between Russia and the United States, Dr. Gvosdev discussed how capable the two countries are of finding common ground. He asked which changes — especially in political systems — might lead to different results. Finally, he explored the influence of religion in these evolving systems. One year in for the Trump administration, and on the eve of Russia’s presidential elections, Dr. Gvosdev provided an enlightening assessment of the dysfunctional relationship between Washington and Moscow.

Nikolas Gvosdev is Professor of National Security Affairs, holding the Captain Jerome E. Levy Chair in Economic Geography and National Security at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He was formerly the Editor of The National Interest magazine and a Senior Fellow at The Nixon Center in Washington, D.C. Gvosdev received his doctorate from St Antony’s College, Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. A frequent commentator on Russian and Eurasian affairs, his work has appeared in such outlets a Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times,The Los Angeles Times, and Orbis, and he has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and BBC. He is the co-author of US Foreign Policy and Defense Strategy: The Rise of an Incidental Superpower, and the co-author of Russian Foreign Policy: Vectors Sectors and Interests. He holds a non-residential fellowship with the Foreign Policy Research Institute.