U.S. Grand Strategy Towards Russia 2001-2017

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: U.S. foreign policy towards Russia is of the utmost importance for the national security of the countries on NATO's eastern flank. Grand strategies are among the analytical concepts for classification and analysis of U.S. actions in the international arena. This paper uses the grand strategy classification framework to classify and analyse U.S. strategy towards Russia from 2001 to 2017. METHODS: 36 speeches about Russia by U.S. Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden from 2001 to 2017 were used in the analysis. The U.S. grand strategy classification framework was used as the tool for coding and classifying different foreign policy elements in these speeches to identify different approaches towards Russia. RESULTS: The content analysis allowed nine stages in U.S. policy towards Russia from 2001 to 2017 to be identified. The most significant shift during this period was in 2014 when, after Russia's aggression in Ukraine, U.S. strategy towards Russia shifted from liberal internationalism towards primacy. CONCLUSIONS: Ideas of liberal internationalist and increasingly primacist grand strategies do influence U.S. foreign policy towards Russia. The grand strategy classification framework offers a valuable tool for analysing, classifying and identifying different foreign policy stages in U.S foreign policy towards Russia.