Russian Reset Provides Opportunity to Rethink Eurasian Policies

The Obama administration's Russian reset provides an opportunity to rethink our Eurasian policies, which should be based on these three principles.

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Idea of the Day

Idea of the Day

The Obama administration’s successful “reset” of relations with Russia provides an opportunity to rethink our policies toward Eurasia, a term we use here to refer to the countries of the greater Black Sea region and Central Asia. We explain in our Foreign Affairs article “Reimagining Eurasia,” that a U.S. strategy to reimagine Eurasia should be based on three principles:

Policy toward Eurasian states should be formulated based on their merits, not their value as bargaining chips or their relationships with other powers.
Engagement should employ all of the tools in our toolbox, including diplomatic, economic, and cultural ones, and not just those related to security and natural resources.
U.S. policy should emphasize transparency and win-win opportunities, while simultaneously rejecting Russian notions of “spheres of influence” and antiquated zero-sum arguments from Eurasian governments.

For more on this topic please see:

– Reimagining Ukraine by Samuel Charap and Alexandros Petersen

– Reimagining Azerbaijan by Samuel Charap and Alexandros Petersen

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