Goals of the Putin-Trump Alliance: A Clue from the Helsinki Press Conference (original) (raw)
The Authoritarian Challenge: The Concordance of the Trump Presidency and Putin's Russia
, American citizens and citizens of the world have faced a startling new situation. On that day, the United States, the longest continuous representative democracy in the modern world, elected to a four-year term as president the authoritarian-minded Donald J. Trump. A man having little or no knowledge of, experience in, or appreciation for representative government and having no stated adherence to the system of alliances the United States forged to make it " the leader of the free world, " Trump promised to upend U.S. domestic and foreign policy and reshape the international order. He has done so. Put together with the decade-long rise and strengthening of dictatorial leadership and nationalist and chauvinist parties in a number of countries, Trump's election has brought about a broadly acknowledged crisis of world democracy. Given its position and role in the world, the United States is now center stage in that crisis. One of the most troublesome aspects of the election was that the rules of the U.S. Constitution awarded Trump victory based on the preference of a minority of voters using an antique and unique electoral college system that overrode a substantial national vote margin in favor of the election's loser. Notwithstanding Hillary Clinton's supposed unpopularity, the Democratic Party candidate won 2.85 million more votes in the national ballot, 48 percent to 46 percent, while Trump's electoral college victory was determined in three decisive states by a total of 77,000 votes (out of 13.4 million). Putting aside that the results were influenced by foreign intervention (see below), the election itself should be a cause of serious concern at the state of American democracy. For the second time in recent U.S. history, a national minority government has been imposed on the majority. No other democracy elects national leadership in such a manner. Yet, there is little discussion of addressing this structural weakness in the political system. 1 The more disturbing aspect is that the person who gained power according to these constitutional rules won the election through demagogy, propaganda, and populist appeals — what Alexander Hamilton called " low intrigue and the little arts of publicity. " Those appeals formed an entire authoritarian platform: mass detention and deportation of millions of unauthorized immigrants; building an impenetrable 2,000-mile border-wall; imposing a ban on Muslims entering the country; nationwide stop and frisk policing to impose " law and order " ; ordering the use of torture to combat foreign terrorism; imperialist seizure of oil resources of sovereign countries; and the imprisonment of Trump's election opponent upon victory; among many such election campaign promises.
The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs , 2018
Despite the passage of time, Cold War patterns of thinking about Russia show no sign of weakening in America. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, we need to look at Russian society in a fundamentally different light. We must learn to appreciate it as a democracy that shares key similarities, as well as differences, with the West.
Putin’s Russia: Russian Mentality and Sophisticated Imperialism in Military Policies
According to my experiences, the Western world hopelessly fails to understand Russian mentality, or misinterprets it. During my analysis of the Russian way of thinking I devoted special attention to the examination of military mentality. I have connected the issue of the Russian way of thinking to the contemporary imperial policies of Putin’s Russia. I have also attempted to prove the level of sophistication of both. I hope that a better understanding of both the Russian mentality and imperialism could contribute to avoiding conceptual mistakes in many fields of Western-Russian relations. Keywords: Imperialism, Mentality, Russia, US, West
Putin's Political Philosophers: Neo-Orthodoxy, Identitarianism, and the Russian Federation
Russian Identitarian Philosophy and its Influence Upon Putin's Russian Federation, 2017
This paper explores the foundations, implications, and political consequences of Russian traditionalist philosophy, specifically addressing the history of Russian traditionalism, its influence upon the French nouvelle droite, and how these concepts are manifested within Putin's United Russia Party. Further, this paper will explore how these ideas are being populated within the European and American far right, enabling a more accurate measurement of Russian foreign policy activities and their intensity in the post-Soviet era.
But, How Will he Play in Peoria? Aleksandr Dugin's Reception and the Spotlight of the Trump Victory
The bright lights directed on Donald Trump’s election have suddenly illuminated Aleksandr Dugin in the American mainstream media. Heretofore, Dugin’s reception in the West has largely been at the margins. Prior to 2016 Dugin’s recognition was largely confined to the academic arena, the more esoteric territory of various political and theological blogs and websites, and in the hazy fringe that borders on sensation and conspiracy theory. The attention brought on by allegations and evidence of Russian fingerprints on hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other groups and organizations in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential race has illuminated the area of the Russian geopolitical stage where Dugin usually performs. But who is this Dugin? Is speculation of his influence on Vladimir Putin credible? What does Dugin advocate? And finally, what is Dugin’s take on the outcome of the 2016 presidential election?
Neo-Eurasianism and Putin’s ‘Multipolarism’ in Russian Foreign Policy
Can Putin really be considered a neo-Eurasianist? Is his policy of ‘multipolarism’ a direct consequence of his neo-Eurasianist inclinations? If so, why did he try to construct closer relations with the US in the post-September 11 period? Is this a real pro-Atlanticism or did Putin’s pro-Atlanticism simply result from the pragmatist tendencies in his foreign policy? Could it be that he had suspicions - from the very beginning of his tenure - about the chances of Russia in following a more neo-Eurasianist foreign policy? These are some of the questions this study will try to concentrate on. Only by finding responses to these questions, one can make judgements about Putin’s neo-Eurasianist inclinations in his foreign policy. However, in order to find such responses, one should also try to take a closer look at neo-Eurasianism’s views about Russian foreign policy. Thus, first of all it is necessary to note down some key elements of the neo-Eurasianist paradigm regarding Russia’s position in the new context of international relations, and to consider the views of two significant figures, Aleksandr Dugin as a theorist and Yevgenii Primakov as a practitioner, about the Russian foreign policy in order to evaluate Putin’s relationship with neo-Eurasianism in his foreign policy.