This study examined the prospects of collaboration and conflict between the United States and Russia in the post Cold War environment. This introductory chapter presents the problem statement and the research methodology for the study.
The crumbling of the so called Communist Empire in Eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990 has led many political observers and analysts to proclaim that the international political environment has been transformed. These observers and analysts conclude that, as a consequence of this collapse, the international political environment has ceased to be one of a bipolar character, in which the United States and the Soviet Union were the principal players, and will soon assume either (1) a multipolar character, in which either (a) the United States and the Soviet Union will be but two of several major players, or (b) the United States, Japan, and the reunited Germany will be the major players, with a considerably less significant role for the Soviet Union, or a unipolar character in which the United States is the dominant world power.
There is little doubt that the international political order is changing, and that in the spring of 1994 it is significantly different from what it was in the fall of 1988. Only a superficial analysis, however, can conclude that this change is the result of the end of the Cold War in 1989. The change is a part of a process that began in early November 1982 when Leonid Brezhvev died, and that continues unabated in the spring of 1994.
It is also somewhat too soon to predict with any degree of accuracy who the major players in the developing multipolar or unipolar environment will and will not be, and which, if any, of these players will be first among equals. In spite of the difficulties being experienced the national government in Russia, a great leap of faith is required to assume that a major international political role will be denied to a country with an armed force as ...