Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy - Essay Example

? The relations between the Russia and United s is a very complex field of study because there are so many ups and downs in which varies from being allies at one time and arch rivals at the other. The ideological, political and economic differences in the system of two countries never allowed them to enjoy pleasant relationships at any stage of the history and there existed a sense of opposition all the time. The end of USSR in the final days of December 1991 resulted in the end of cold war and a new phase of relationships between Russia (which assumed the UN Security Council seat previously held by USSR) and the United States began (Calvocressi, 2009). The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program was one of the rare initiatives which Russia and the US took as allies. The objective was to find all the dispersed nuclear weapons in various states of the former Soviet Union and deploy them safely in Russia in order to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons going in the hands of terrorists. With the advent of a new era in relationship between Russia and the United States, cooperation in space was also increased and in 1994 one of the US space shuttle missions docked with the Russian MIR space station and later there was further cooperation in space in the form of an International Space Station which was jointly built by the two countries (Suri, 2005). The relationships saw another down when in 2002 the US President George Bush withdrew from the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty which was signed between the two countries in 1972. The unilateral withdrawal was not seen as a good action by Russia and the move served as a setback to the improving relationships between the two countries. The immediate reaction from Russia came in the form of its opposition to the use of force in Iraq. The newly born rivalry continued during Kosovo’s independence crisis (Bourque, 2008). The current status of relationships between Russia and the United states cannot be termed as friendly by any means because the relationships which were strained by the US withdrawal from ABM treaty and which were further deteriorated by Iraq war and Kosovo independence crisis continued to go from bad to worse. Another significant down came in March 2007 when US announced its plans to build an anti-ballistic missile defense installation in Poland along with a radar station in the Czech Republic. According to the United States officials, the motive behind such plans is to safeguard the international peace and ensure international security against the threat posed by Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons to the world. However Russia considered this move as an aggression against them because Poland and Czech Republic are former Warsaw Pact countries and US military influence in these countries means creating an imbalance of power in Europe once again. Russian President issued various statements to protest against this action and warn the US president about the consequences of such a move while on the other side Russia continued to test its intercontinental missiles and claimed that these missiles can defeat all kinds of missile defense systems. Russia also started establishing missile defense basis along the now US backed Poland (Kegley & Blanton, 2011). The relationships between the two countries have reached another historical low at the moment and the Russian-Georgian clash and Russian military cooperation with Venezuela are the most recent incidents which mark the strain in the relationships. The diplomatic dialogue between both countries has almost ceased to a zero level at the moment and there are no hopes of an improvement in the relationships in recent future. The relationships between the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and United States are a matter of very frequent discussion in international politics today and the subject has many complexities associated with it. The diplomatic ties between the two countries exist from the year 1947; Pakistan emerged on the map of the world during this year. From the very beginning the basis of relationship between the two countries is the economic and military aid supplied by the United States to the democratically volatile country, in return Pakistan was supposed to serve US strategic interest against different states during various phases of the history. The relationships between the two countries continued to improve from 1947 to 1979 but suffered a setback when US received evidences that Pakistan was pursuing a nuclear weapon program. As a result in the April of 1979 US stopped all economic assistance to Pakistan and consequently the relationships between the two countries were strained for the first time in history (Gaddis, 2007). However the relationships were soon revived as both countries saw common interests in opposing the Soviet expansion in Afghanistan. Another aid package was devised for Pakistan as the relationships improved. This time the magnitude of US interests in the region was much higher than the past because the objective was to end the rapid Soviet expansion in Asia. Pakistan served as a good ally to US this time and the War in Afghanistan which was fought between Soviet forces and the US and Pakistan backed fighters ultimately put an end to the expansion of Soviet Union in Asia and its fall later (Cox & Stokes, 2008). The relationships between the two countries continued to improve but the Nuclear arms tests conducted by Pakistan in 1998 resulted in another setback as the large amount of economic aid to the country was once again seized and the diplomatic ties were cut down to almost zero. United States also recommended putting various economic sanctions on Pakistan because of its move to acquire Nuclear weapons. But the relationships between the two countries saw another revival when the United States decided to crush the terrorist government of Afghanistan in a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Pakistan was again deemed of as an ally because of its strategic importance in the region (Hilali, 2005). Previously Pakistan was openly backing the extremist government set up by Taliban in Afghanistan but when the Taliban administration failed to hand over Osama bin Laden to Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, a reversal in Pakistan’s policy towards Taliban was seen and the country served as the most critical ally in the US operation in Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2011 Pakistan received large sums of money in the form of economic and military aid from the United States in return of its support in Afghanistan. The recent developments in the relationships between the two countries are believed to have hit the lowest point in history because of various reasons. Despite receiving large sums of money in the form of economic and military aid, Pakistan’s role in the war against terrorism has always been controversial and the world is concerned about the country’s sincerity towards the effort. The fact that Osama bin Laden was residing in Pakistan for the last five years of his life and that too near a military academy raised various questions about Pakistan’s honesty in the war against terrorism, as a result United States stopped the pledged military aid to the country. Other events which have strained the relationships between the two countries include the controversial killing of two Pakistani citizens by a US diplomat and also the recent controversy over NATO forces attack on a Pakistani check post on Afghan border. The diplomatic relationships between Russia and the United States and between Pakistan and the United States have a very evident similarity; the relations were good in the times of common interest but went bad due to the unacceptable activities of Russia and Pakistan. Like Pakistan, Russia was also considered an ally during the World War but the alliance turned into rivalry soon after the war. Russia posed serious threats to the security of United States during various phases of history but Pakistan was never considered such a threat in the past, however recent developments can be deemed as the country being a potential threat to the US security. During the past 20 years, United States took the responsibility to be the flag bearer of international peace and security and the foreign policy was always devised keeping in mind this responsibility. Any threat to the global peace and security was considered a threat to the security of the United States. The relationships with countries like Russia and Pakistan clearly depict the fact that global peace always served as the driving force behind the US foreign policy and it was never compromised at any cost. During the post cold war period, USSR was the deciding factor in the foreign policy of the United States however after its fall, the global scenario changed altogether and the threats posed to international security by various activities in the Middle East become the centre of US foreign policy. However the objective of ensuring global peace and national security remained consistent. References Bourque, S. (2008). Post-Cold War. Greenwood Press. Calvocoressi, P. (2009). World politics since 1945. Pearson Education. Cox, M., & Stokes, D. (2008). US foreign policy. Oxford University Press. Dobson, A., & Marsh, S. (2006). US foreign policy since 1945. Taylor and Francis. Gaddis, J. (2007). The Cold War. Penguin Books. Hilali, A. (2005). US-Pakistan relationship: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Kegley, C., & Blanton, S. (2011). World Politics: Trend and Transformation. Cengage Learning. Suri, J. (2005). Power and protest: global revolution and the rise of detente. 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