Thinking about tariffs and diplomacy — the relations between nations — I want to look at the relations between the US and Russia, during the Cold War and now. Once again we find ourselves at odds, but it is far from “same old, same old.”
That Russia, a mini-empire styling itself the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the “Rome” of a would-be-world-wide quasi-religious evangelical ideology called Communism. It sought converts everywhere with some success. Even the US had a small Communist Party.
Practitioners of that ‘faith’ remain in power in North Korea, Vietnam, China and possibly Laos, although most other one-time adherents have shed its trappings and rituals. The Russian branch of the ‘faith’ collapsed under its own weight in 1991 and Communism has not made many new converts since.
Today’s Russia is merely a nationalistic authoritarian regime with no ‘missionaries’ out seeking converts. It has ambitions to return to its imperial past by becoming the military power in its “near abroad which seeks to include Ukraine and the other former SSRs., some of which (e.g., Belarus) are willing, others (e.g., the Baltic republics, Ukraine) not at all. A fair few former SSRs (e.g., the "Stans") fall somewhere in between those extremes.
Today’s Russia under Putin has tried to make itself an ideological force by arguing for conservative values in a world where those are under attack by social progressives. This has had limited success as it lacks Communism’s evangelical fervor. Thus, the new antagonism between our countries falls far short of the vigor which the Cold War inspired. Perhaps we are fortunate Putin is not especially charismatic.
