Media
hyper-focus on Russian meddling in our recent elections has blinded us to the
urgent need and possibility for US-Russia cooperation to resolve the conflict
in Ukraine, help end the disastrous war in Syria, and reduce the threat of
nuclear war. President Trump’s meeting with President Putin on the edge of the
G-20 meeting in Hamburg may have represented a step toward a real reset in
US-Russia relations. Henry Kissinger’s meeting with Putin in Moscow on June 29
may have helped clarify necessary elements for a reset.
While rightly condemning Russian meddling in
our elections, thanks to public media station KQED, we were reminded recently
how many times over decades the US meddled in other countries elections,
including Argentina (1946), Italy (1948), Japan (1951), Philippines (1953), Vietnam
(1955), Laos (1958), Dominican Republic (1963-65), Chile (1964-1973),
Yugoslavia (2000). Combined with the 1953 US-orchestrated coup against Iran’s
Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, 1961 involvement in the assassination of
Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and 1973 US-supported coup against
Chile’s elected President Salvador Allende, our country’s record leaves little
room for national self-righteousness. Whatever may happen next about Russian
meddling in our elections, US-Russia cooperation is essential to address
current conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and the threat of a new nuclear arms
race.
A year ago, NATO’s largely symbolic military
maneuvers to counter Russian moves in Crimea and Ukraine were perceived by
Russia as more purposefully provocative than militarily credible. Leaders in
Germany, France and Italy worried at the time and still worry that escalating
confrontation is leading dangerously in the direction of a new Cold War.
Having
successfully shed his anti-Russian blinders more than most American
politicians, Henry Kissinger has been publically critical from the start about
how persistent Cold War patterns complicated the crisis in Ukraine. Russia imagined
a substantially larger than real U.S. role in the popular revolt against the
corrupt Ukrainian President Yanukovych, and the U.S. uncritically welcomed the
revolt and new President Poroshenko as providing opportunity to draw Ukraine
closer to the EEU and NATO. Russian military support for Russia-leaning rebels
in Eastern Ukraine and increasing U.S. military support for the Western-oriented
government in Kiev compounded the dangers of a U.S.-Russia confrontation.
The
necessary elements for a compromise political solution in Ukraine have been
relatively clear for some time. Kissinger argued that what’s needed is tougher
coordinated US-Russian diplomacy to support strict adherence by both sides to the
ceasefire and full implementation of all provisions of the peace agreement
which called for constitutional reform in Ukraine and return of the entire area
to Ukrainian sovereignty, but with independent local elections and more
autonomy for the Eastern region. In addition, given its geographic location and
history, Ukraine should be encouraged to establish economic relations with both
the European Economic Union and the Russian-backed Eurasian Union. And, Ukraine
should announce formally and publicly that it will not join NATO.
In Syria, US-Russia relations worsened in the
last year. Recently, however, the US and Russia, with Jordan’s help, negotiated
a ceasefire in Southwest Syria that seems to be holding and could be the basis
for a wider cessation of violence. Closer US-Russia coordination and
cooperation are essential to avoid accidental military confrontation and to
restart political negotiations. The United States and Russia will need to agree
on a united, muscular diplomatic strategy to get commitments from the
Government of Syria and the main Syrian opposition forces, as well as from Iran,
Saudi Arabia and Turkey to participate in negotiations to end the war and form
an inclusive, representative government. Not a simple or easy undertaking, but
essential to saving lives and to serving longer term, best interests of all the
parties involved.
While
efforts to resolve the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria are very important and
would help build trust between our countries, U.S.-Russia cooperation is also urgently
needed to reject a new nuclear arms race.
The United States is in the process of committing $1 trillion dollars
over thirty years to build a new generation of more accurate, faster and
smaller nuclear weapons, like the already flight-tested B61-12, which many
military experts believe may make using nuclear weapons more thinkable. Russia, China and Britain are in process of
making similar dangerous commitments. The
US and Russia need to negotiate new risk-reduction initiatives related to
nuclear weapons, including cancelling funding for upgrading our countries’
nuclear arsenals and agreeing to support the Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons
worldwide, already endorsed by two-thirds of the 192 member United Nations.
While
simplistic anti-Trump, anti-Putin views, and/or stubborn Cold War sentiment may
cause some to reject the idea of cooperation out of hand, it is essential that
the United States and Russia work together, as they did effectively in negotiating
the Iran Nuclear Deal. US-Russian cooperation to end the conflicts in Ukraine
and Syria, and reject a new nuclear arms race would represent good real news and
provide reassuring relief for our country and world anxiously on edge over
growing global inequalities and extremist threats. President Trump and
President Putin could get us moving in that right direction.
July 2017
