This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend “The
Critical Risk in America’s Relations with Putin’s Russia”, an event coordinated
by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.“ The lecture featured John Beyrle, the
U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2008 and 2012, and, previously,
a special adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Rather than focus on the current Russia-Ukraine crisis, as I
had expected him to do, Beyrle decided to center his presentation on
characterizing the past and present U.S.-Russia relationship. Specifically, his
overarching thesis seemed to be that despite how irrational Russia’s foreign
policy may seem, it is as vital as ever that the U.S. engage with Moscow.
Beyrle set up this argument by pointing out that over the past 200 years, Russia and the U.S. have actually shared an overwhelmingly peaceful relationship. He cited,
for example, Russian support for the North during the U.S. Civil War, and U.S. aid
in resolving the Russo-Japanese war during the early 20th century. The only interruptions during
this amiable relationship, according to Beyrle, have been the Cold War, and the
period of tension the two powers are experiencing now. Beyrle went on to explain that Russia is
at a particularly transitional time, and that the population is at a point in
which it is developing a new national identity. What this means, according to Beyrle, is that it is as
important as ever for the U.S. to develop and nourish a productive relationship
with Russia. Because the population
is especially impressionable at this moment, it is important to counter the
mostly anti-western conservative movement coming out of Moscow with an ideology
that Russia can coexist productively with the west. As the former Ambassador
put it, “we have a responsibility of avoiding the worst possible outcomes of
Russia defining what kind of nation it wants to be.”
An article I recently read called “In post-Soviet Russia, A Quest to
Define National Identity” seemed to share Beyrle’s message. Specifically, Felix Razumovsky, a historian who shares
his perspectives throughout this piece, explains “there’s no agreement among
the population about the country’s post-Soviet identity.” For this reason, according to
Razumovsky, it is important for Russians to understand the impulse for
revolution and radical reinvention, especially because results of this impulse
are often so tragic.
