New Cold War, New NATO, and New States in a Desecularizing Eastern Europe
Christopher Marsh Monday, 1 September 2008
Perhaps not since Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1980 has a U.S. president come to office with the state of U.S.-Russian relations so strained. When President George H.W. Bush took office in 1988, he benefited from Mikhail Gorbachev's "new thinking" in foreign policy and his perestroika and glasnost' initiatives. Before the terms of either leader would expire, the Berlin Wall would be down, the Cold War over, and the Soviet Union and its empire in Eastern Europe no more. Bill Clinton was then able to lead the U.S. during its period of warmest relations with Russia perhaps ever, as Russia worked throughout the 1990s to develop democracy and peaceful relations with its neighbors, while simultaneously dealing with challenges to its authority domestically, most notably from Chechnya. The warming trend continued into the early years of George W. Bush's first term, but by its end a dramatic reversal occurred, culminating in what is now being the called the "New Cold War."
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