The failure of the US-Russia reset policy

Abstract

In light of the recent political events in Ukraine, the operation in Syria and the increased amount of emerging global issues, the topic of relations between Russia and the West has become much more relevant. This is aside from the reality that the relations have always been difficult and involved complications. In order to understand the development of events in recent years, we need to consider events that have already taken place. This paper presents an analysis in the form of a case study in international relations related to US-Russia relations. The ‘Reset of the relations’ between the two states was established in 2009 and led to a few years of economic, military and cultural cooperation. However, the initiative ultimately came to an end. There are a number of reasons that may have led to the reset failure. My research will aim to provide an in depth understanding and analysis of three of the most prominent explanations. These include the following: the offensive realist argument, the presence of domestic manipulation and the misperceptions argument. The analysis will cover the contribution of each of the three causes of the reset policy failure and their implication for the future of US-Russia relations is described in the conclusion. No significant evidence was found to backup the first two presented arguments. Thus, this paper states that mutual misperception and the lack of understanding between the two countries was the main cause of reset failure and continues to impede successful US-Russia relations today. It describes fundamental problems in US-Russia relations and offers recommendations to overcome the mutual distrust by increasing communication between the two countries. The research concludes on how a certain policy between the states did not work because of mutual distrust of the parties to the agreement. Several solutions to the problem are discussed in the conclusion of the research.