Discord and lawlessness define the current state of international relations.
Russia invaded Ukraine because of its pro-Western orientation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been threatening to use nuclear weapons, and there's a proxy war between those who back the West and those who back the Russia/Chinese orbit. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Yes, if one reads the story "Will Russia's Break with the West be Permanent? Putin has Created a Rupture that Will be Difficult to Repair" by writers Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman.
Cold War II pits the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and several other countries against China and Russia, which have allies in North Korea and in the global South. Kimmage and Lipman call Russia's current rupture with the West greater than what occurred after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Russia allied itself with the US, United Kingdom, and others prior to the revolution in World War I.
If one looks at history, there are other instances where Russia cooperated with the West. In 1812, Russia defeated Napolean and cooperated with Prussia and Austria to secure Europe. As Kimmage and Lipman pointed out, Russia was a major point in the balance of power in Europe after the Congress of Vienna. It also played an important part of European diplomacy before World War I.
Kimmage and Lipman also addressed Russia's impact on European culture: "In the nineteenth century, Russia made significant contributions from within European culture, especially with its literature, music, and ballet. Such were the achievements of Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and many others. This efflorescence of Russian culture was stimulated by contact with European ideas and European works of art. And Russia's ruling house was dynastically linked to several of its western European counterparts."
Despite the rupture with the West after the Bolshevik Revolution, Soviet Russia still drew from the West. Western thought influenced Karl Marx, the philosophical progenitor of Communism. The Russian Communists put a lot of stock in Germany and its working class, and Soviet Russia cooperated with the West to destroy Fascism.
During the years of Soviet Russia, Communist governments were interested in high European culture - Bauhaus and neoclassical architecture, the European canon of literature and philosophy, and elements of European and American modernism. In the early years of the Soviet Union, the country was leading the European avant-garde in visual arts, film, and theater. Things changed when Joseph Stalin came to power, as he distrusted Europe and wanted to build "socialism in one country." However, there was the mentioned cooperation in World War II during his rule.
By the 1970s, the Cold War lost much of its intensity, and the Russian citizenry became interested in life in the West. Intercultural exchange programs helped facilitate this. Soviet Russia's final leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, held a fondness for the West, and Russia westernized from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to 2010. The West became a model for Russian leaders, and Western culture penetrated the country even more. Even current Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2000 that he couldn't see a Russia without Europe.
However, Putin's relationship with the West soured after 2014 due to his expansionist policies - his aim to construct an anti-Western state. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine represented an even bigger break with the West, and Putin presents the West as decadent. Cultural, athletic, and scientific organizations are no longer cooperating with the West.
Kimmage and Lipman pointed out that China and the global South are not a way forward for Russia. They also said the more Russia becomes embedded in non-Western economic structures, the more it will be able to carry on its war. The two writers ended the story with a glum assessment of our relationship with Russia: "For Putin's Russia to rethink its ties to the West, the West would have to withdraw its military support for Ukraine and agree to a neutral Ukraine or a divided Ukraine in which Russia has dominion over at least half of the country. This is highly unlikely to happen. For the West to rethink its ties to Russia, Russia would have to end the war, participate in the war crimes trials of Russians, turn Putin over to The Hague, and pay war reparations to Ukraine. This, too, is highly unlikely."
The breech between Russia and the West provided a backdrop for both Cold Wars. Perhaps a settlement in Ukraine that leaves it a divided country and brings an end to the fighting will happen after all, as it's unlikely that the US will send troops to the country after its experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, many recognize Putin's status as an international lawbreaker. However, let's not forget the impact Western culture has on segments of the Russian population now and in the past. In the world of international relations, it's called soft power. Hopefully, in time, the Russian people will demand a more westernized state, and then the world's various power centers can cooperate in a world defined by peace and international law.
Jason Sibert is the Lead Writer of the Peace Economy Project
