Why the United States Should Cede its Russia Policy to Europe

The usual criticism of American policy toward Russia is that it is somehow wrong or misguided. I argue the problem is far more fundamental than that: the United States would do better ceding control of its policy to Europe. This is so, not because the Russian government has become increasingly suspicious of American intentions since Kosovo (although it has), but because popular and elite conceptions of what Russia is and should become exclude the United States from that image. Instead, it is Europe that is increasingly thought to be Russia's future, not the United States. The consequence is that American policy preferences on, say, expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or war crimes tribunals in the Balkans, or pipeline policy in the Caucasus, are all reflexively treated in Russia as yet another effort by Washington to extend its unilateral domination of Russia, and the globe. Since European policy toward Russia is more or less 90% equivalent to US policy, Washington deferring to European leadership on the Russian question would be far more effective than continuing to invoke Russian hostility and fear. […]

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