New Cold War, 1991-2018

3 units

Russia, Russia, Russia. Scarcely a day goes by in America without banner headlines proclaiming Russian skulduggery. Meanwhile, off the coast of Syria U.S. and Russian warships glare ominously at each other. As the two sides are now at daggers drawn Americans find themselves in the midst of a crisis the likes of which have not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis when Washington and Moscow stood eyeball to eyeball. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 there was euphoria and much talk of a peace dividend. What happened? Should we blame Vladimir Putin for stoking the flames of war abroad? What about U.S. responsibility in this matter? Was NATO expansion to Russia's very doorstep the opening shot of a new cold war? Can these issues be resolved through diplomacy, or are we trapped in history, prisoners of a clash between antithetical civilizational models? This course will explore these and related issues.