Despite some superficial similarities, relations between Russia and the U.S. today are sufficiently different from the past that they cannot accurately be described as a conflict in the same category as the Cold War. U.S.-Russia relations have been severely strained over the crisis in Ukraine, but management of the crisis alone will not be enough to restore productive relations between Washington and Moscow or to repair the damage to European security. The best hope may be a return to the principles of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act through an inclusive region-wide dialogue, similar to the 1972-75 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). That process took place against a backdrop of intense rivalry between the U.S. and Soviet-led blocs, suggesting that reasoned dialogue and consensus on core issues of shared security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian space is possible, despite—or perhaps even because of—the looming threat of conflict between geopolitical rivals. Today, the United States, Europe, and Russia all share an interest in renewal of just such a dialogue, although what will not—indeed what must not—return is the Cold War “balance of terror” that exerted pressure on all sides to participate seriously in the Helsinki process.

Matthew Rojansky is the Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He previously served as Deputy Director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he founded Carnegie’s Ukraine Program, led a multi-year project to support U.S.-Russia health cooperation, and created a track-two task force to promote resolution of the Moldova-Transnistria conflict. From 2007 to 2010, Rojansky served as executive director of the Partnership for a Secure America (PSA), where he orchestrated high-level bipartisan initiatives aimed at repairing the US-Russian relationship, strengthening the U.S. commitment to nuclear arms control and non-proliferation, and leveraging global science engagement for diplomacy. Rojansky is an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS and American University as well as a participant in the Dartmouth Dialogues, a track-two U.S.-Russian conflict resolution initiative begun in 1960.

 Download Podcast

Duration: 33:16