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July 22nd, 2016 
Awake Goy Alwaght- Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and NATO have had a fair share of ups and downs when it comes to their relationship. Even though in many terms they have reached success working alongside each other in order to solve international issues and problems, in other times they have opposed each other to such extent that it was not too hard to imagine their conflict could result in another Cold War.
However, NATO-Russia ties suggest that their future relation is going to be based on strategic partnership and conflicts in geopolitics. Therefore, one may conclude that the two parties could cooperate in some cases, and still compete over expanding influence as they could have differences when it comes to geopolitical disputes.
Prospects for Russia-NATO Relations
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union there have been different approaches towards Russia-NATO relations, which four most important of them includes:
Russia partnership in NATO
The first time that possibility of Russia’s partnership in NATO was considered traces back to early 1990s when the then Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, was lobbying for the country’s partnership in the most important western institutions and organizations. If this scenario was to come true it would have ended the Cold War and the arms race between Russian and west, still for some reasons it never came to be:
Firstly, NATO had been formed to counterbalance Russia and in the past years it has always retained its distance and conflict with Russia. So, with Russia’s membership in NATO, there would be no reason for maintenance of NATO. Existence of an enemy is greatly important when it comes to treaties such as NATO and Russia’s Joining NATO would eliminate the alliance’s enemy.
Secondly, through the past years, due to many conflicts and disagreements, Russia’s desire to establish an alliance with western countries has decreased considerably. So Russia is not really willing to join NATO.
Establishing partnership without membership
According to this scenario, a general system is needs to boost two sides cooperation without the need of Russia’s membership in NATO. This scenario has been tested in the past years and two sides have tried to cooperate and coordinate through the NATO-Russia council. However, outbreak of various crises in Europe and other places in the world has intensified tensions and resulted in the ruining of agreements and partnerships. Russia and NATO have different stances on crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Georgia, and Ukraine that fuels deputes between them.
Differences’ escalation to the point of another cold war
Based on this scenario, the disputes between the two sides will continue and they will take it as far as another Cold War. Increased military deployment on the borders of Eastern Europe, forming a missile defense system and intensified disagreements about pressing international issues could all be the outcomes of this scenario.
Cooperation and competition
Regarding this scenario, the NATO-Russia relations are going to be based upon geopolitical cooperation and competition. Namely, NATO and Russia will cooperate in some fields as would compete in some other fields. For example, Russia and NATO have shown mutual interests to cooperation on security issues such as terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, establishing energy security and resolving regional conflicts. At the same time they have differences over subjects such as influence and geopolitical topics, which causes them to compete with each other.
At last it should be said that both in Russia and west, there is not a positive perspective towards the other side. In Moscow there is a constant idea that the west is trying to weaken Russia by any means possible and their final goal is to turn Russia into a series of subordinated and affiliated countries. According to Moscow, the expansion of NATO, the West’s support for the color revolutions, and United States’ plans to surround Russia with missile defense systems are plots to bring Kremlin to its knees.
On the other hand, the west believes that Kremlin dreams of restoring its lost empire through annexing or destroying former Soviet Republics or even the former countries of The Warsaw Pact. This has caused a permanent fear of Russia in west. Meanwhile, the Ukraine crisis, construction of a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, military exercises, and military buildup by both sides could affect future interactions between Russia and NATO. In this regard each side monitors the other one’s actions so in the right time they can act and respond appropriately.
By Alwaght
Source Article from http://theiranproject.com/blog/2016/07/22/four-possible-scenarios-russia-nato-ties/
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