Cooperation between Russia and the West

Despite concerns in Europe and the United States about the current direction of Russia’s internal reforms, there is a need and an opportunity for trilateral cooperation in facing these challenges, according to a new report by the Atlantic Council of the United States. The Program on Transatlantic Relations is engaged in an ongoing effort to analyze and address the potential for cooperation between Russia and “the West” as well as among the transatlantic community vis-à-vis Russia.

A recently published report on this issue, The New Partnership: Building Russia-West Cooperation on Strategic Challenges, presents the conclusions of a project jointly organized by the Atlantic Council, the Aspen Institute Italia, and the Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The project brought together U.S., Russian, and European leaders and experts on terrorism, WMD proliferation, and the greater Middle East region for three workshops to consider whether there was potential for cooperation in addressing these challenges. Despite sometimes severe disagreements over the nature of the threats and the most appropriate responses, the group was able to identify specific cooperative steps forward that would be beneficial to all. Even as concern mounted about progress in Russian economic and political reforms, cooperation in these strategic areas was viewed as having the double benefit of addressing very serious threats and strengthening trilateral connections.