Axel Springer Lecture

The Elusive Goal of Western Partnership with Russia

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, a less strained, more peaceful future between the West and Moscow seemed not only possible but likely. What happened? To understand where we are today, it is essential—as the Greek dramatist Sophocles advised—to judge the new times by the past. The unexpected end of the Cold War seemed to have delivered the world from the threat of superpower nuclear confrontation. Yet that precious moment some 30 years ago slipped away without the establishment of a truly new relationship with Moscow. Instead, it turned out to be a temporary thaw in Cold War-style hostility between the West and Russia. In this lecture, Mary Sarotte will draw from her most recent book, Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate, to investigate what went wrong.