The Begin of The Second Cold War

Josef Reuther
10/19/13
811

   The article "A New Cold War" by Peter Baker and Steven Lee Myers of the Upfront Magazine focuses on the current tensions between the United States of America and Russia. The presidents of the two respective countries Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are unable to agree on several controversial issues.

   Since Putin's reelection last year the two countries have been unable to agree on anything. One piece of evidence that supports this claim is that while the United States is trying to help Syrian rebels in the fight against their government Russia is selling the Syrian government billions of dollars worth of weapons. "In September, as the U.S. was poised to launch air strikes against the Syrian Government in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that killed 1,400," as the article stated, Russia was using its power in the Security Council to veto any actions against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. In the end Russia managed to aid its ally as well as take control of the debate over the chemical weapons. As can be seen Obama and Putin are not able to agree on currently pressing issues such as the Civil War in Syria.

    In August of this year Russia granted Edward , who is wanted by the United States, political asylum. Snowden who leaked information about U.S. surveillance programs instantly became one of the United States most wanted. Russia is offering him protection from the United States and most experts now agree that "U.S.-Russian relations are at a historic low since the collapse of the Soviet Union,"as the article aptly states. As can be seen Obama's goal of rebuilding bonds between America and Russia seem even more elusive than they did before. 

   Cooperation between the United States and Russia have always revolved around the U.S. accepting a certain amount of Putin's authoritarianism in return for help on global issues. It is clear that Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are unable to agree on certain very important issues. The result of this appears to be the begin of a second Cold War.