The Cold War ceased. But never ended. So, the most potent geopolitical powers — United States and Russia — continue to be engaged in a kind of one-upmanship that is a throwback to the days of the Cold War. With the launch of a missile defence shield in Romania and another planned in Poland, the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) has given Russia’s Vladimir Putin another stick to beat the West with.
The Western military alliance has been clashing with Moscow for years over the deployment of missile defence shields in Europe. Washington’s Cold War rival, which sees the US as the ultimate enemy, believes or wants to show it believes that the missile interceptors in Europe are a ploy at containment.
More than two decades after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian leadership is yet to come to terms with the sense of loss it inherited from the dissolution of the USSR. Putin has called it the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. US and its allies in Nato have been insisting that the missile defence capability with an ultimate command and control facility in Germany is not directed at Russia. But the Kremlin sees it as a direct threat and refuses to believe the shield is not an attempt at emasculating Russia and its bid to court countries in its sphere of influence.
Washington’s assertion that the capability is directed at Iran is not very convincing after last year’s vaunted pact that virtually took away all the sting from Tehran’s infamous nuclear programme given to secretive locations and subterfuge in operations.
But why would the biggest military power in the world want to rile another that apparently doesn’t pose a threat to its global ambitions and purported hegemonic designs?
The eastward expansion of Nato has been a point of contention between Washington and Moscow. The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact — formed to counter the trans-Atlantic multilateral alliance came as another shock for post-Cold War Russia, shattering every bit of its self-esteem. The rapprochement the West was looking for with Russia never materialised and Putin kept whipping up nationalistic fervour to use it as a prop to strengthen his hold on power and the polity.
The missile shield may have given Romania and Poland a leg up in a balance of power equation in eastern Europe but has opened up an inflammatory front in relations with Russia.
Containment or not, US policy of spreading its strategic footprint has worked to make it unpopular in the international community. In a unipolar world, Washington needs to tread softly so as not to be branded an aggressor.
The Cold War ceased. But never ended. So, the most potent geopolitical powers — United States and Russia — continue to be engaged in a kind of one-upmanship that is a throwback to the days of the Cold War. With the launch of a missile defence shield in Romania and another planned in Poland, the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) has given Russia’s Vladimir Putin another stick to beat the West with.
The Western military alliance has been clashing with Moscow for years over the deployment of missile defence shields in Europe. Washington’s Cold War rival, which sees the US as the ultimate enemy, believes or wants to show it believes that the missile interceptors in Europe are a ploy at containment.
More than two decades after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian leadership is yet to come to terms with the sense of loss it inherited from the dissolution of the USSR. Putin has called it the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. US and its allies in Nato have been insisting that the missile defence capability with an ultimate command and control facility in Germany is not directed at Russia. But the Kremlin sees it as a direct threat and refuses to believe the shield is not an attempt at emasculating Russia and its bid to court countries in its sphere of influence.
Washington’s assertion that the capability is directed at Iran is not very convincing after last year’s vaunted pact that virtually took away all the sting from Tehran’s infamous nuclear programme given to secretive locations and subterfuge in operations.
But why would the biggest military power in the world want to rile another that apparently doesn’t pose a threat to its global ambitions and purported hegemonic designs?
The eastward expansion of Nato has been a point of contention between Washington and Moscow. The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact — formed to counter the trans-Atlantic multilateral alliance came as another shock for post-Cold War Russia, shattering every bit of its self-esteem. The rapprochement the West was looking for with Russia never materialised and Putin kept whipping up nationalistic fervour to use it as a prop to strengthen his hold on power and the polity.
The missile shield may have given Romania and Poland a leg up in a balance of power equation in eastern Europe but has opened up an inflammatory front in relations with Russia.
Containment or not, US policy of spreading its strategic footprint has worked to make it unpopular in the international community. In a unipolar world, Washington needs to tread softly so as not to be branded an aggressor.
