Abstract
Since the early 1990s, two key issues have dominated efforts to develop a stable and predictable relationship between NATO and Russia. The first has been the persistent Russian demand for some kind of ‘special’ institutional relationship with the Alliance, one that is demonstrably distinct from — and closer than — that enjoyed by any other non-member state. The second issue has been NATO enlargement, particularly as it has encroached upon Russia’s self-ascribed ‘near abroad’.1 More recently, other important issues have risen up the agenda, including missile defence, the stalled ratification of the amended CFE treaty, and NATO’s actual and potential roles in the Caucasus.
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Notes and References
For a detailed analysis, see M. A. Smith, Russia and NATO since 1991: From Cold War through Cold Peace to Partnership? (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006).
Segodnya, 14 September 1993. Translated in The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press [hereafter CDPSP], Vol. XLV(37), 1993, pp. 16–17.
‘Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s Letter to US President Bill Clinton’, SIPRI Yearbook 1994 (Oxford: SIPRI/Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 249–50.
Remarks by the President in Live Telecast to Russian People (Washington, DC: White House Office of the Press Secretary, 1994).
Z. Brzezinski, ‘The Premature Partnership’, Foreign Affairs, 73(2), 1994, p. 70.
J. Morrison, ‘Yalta II or Realpolitik?’ The Washington Times, 6 September 1994.
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J. Bone, ‘US and Russia Carve Out “Spheres of Influence”’, The Times, 27 September 1994; Krasnaya Zvezda, 1 October 1994. CDPSP, Vol. XLVI(40), 1994, p. 24.
B. Clark and V. Marsh, ‘Yeltsin Denounces NATO Plans to Expand Eastwards’, Financial Times, 6 December 1994.
N. Afanasievskii, ‘On the NATO-Russia Founding Act’, International Affairs (Moscow), Vol. 43(4), 1997, p. 159ff.
On this see S. Talbott, The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy (New York: Random House, 2002), Chapter 9;
J. Goldgeier and M. McFaul, Power and Purpose: US Policy toward Russia after the Cold War (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003), p. 203; ‘A New European Order’, The Economist, 17 May 1997, p. 43.
Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation (Brussels: NATO, 1997), at fndact-a.htm.
This phrase was attributed to the then German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. See ‘Wooing a Bear’, The Economist, 14 December 1996, p. 47. At the time there were 16 NATO member states.
See Smith, Russia and NATO since 1991, p. 66.
Founding Act, Part II.
Izvestia, 28 May 1997. CDPSP, Vol. XLIX(21), 1997, p. 5.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 27 May 1997. CDPSP, Vol. XLIX(22), 1997, pp. 10–11.
Quoted in Russia and European Security (Document A/1722) (Paris: Assembly of the Western European Union, 2000), at http://www.assembly-weu.org/en/documents/sessions_ordinaires/rpt/2000/1722.html. See also Segodnya, 16 May 1997. CDPSP, Vol. XLIX(20), 1997, pp. 2–4.
‘Testimony of Hon. Henry Kissinger’, The Debate on NATO Enlargement (Washington, DC: Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate, 1997), at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/. See also K-H. Kamp, ‘The NATO-Russia Founding Act: Trojan Horse or Milestone of Reconciliation?’ Aussenpolitik, Vol. 48(4), 1997, pp. 320–1.
‘Ambassador Pickering Response to Question from Senator Hagel’, The Debate on NATO Enlargement.
Kamp, ‘The NATO-Russia Founding Act’, p. 324.
See NATO-Russia Relations and Next Steps for NATO Enlargement (Document AS277PCED-E) (Brussels: NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 1999), at http://www.nato-pa.int/publications/comrep/1999/as277pced-e.html.
Col. Gen. L. Ivashov, ‘Russia-NATO: Matters of Cooperation’, International Affairs (Moscow), Vol. 44(6), 1998, p. 113.
Segodnya, 10 December 1998. CDPSP, Vol. L(49), 1998, p. 19.
See inter alia, K-P. Klaiber, ‘The NATO-Russia relationship a year after Paris’, NATO Review, Vol. 46(3), 1998, pp.16–19.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta, 26 March 1999. CDPSP, Vol. LI(12), 1998 [sic], pp. 2–3.
Independent International Commission on Kosovo, Kosovo Report (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 161.
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WEU Assembly, Russia and European Security (Document A/1722) (Paris: Assembly of the Western European Union, 2000).
A. M. Brudenell, ‘Russia’s Role in the Kosovo Conflict of 1999’, RUSI Journal, Vol. 153(1), 2008, pp. 30–4.
Vremya MN, 5 July 1999. CDPSP, Vol. LI(27), 1999, p. 8.
Ivanov: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 12 October 1999. CDPSP, Vol. LI(41), 1999, p. 3; Primakov: E. MacAskill, ‘NATO and Russia Re-establish Ties as Tensions Ease’, The Guardian, 17 February 2000.
WEU Assembly, Russia and European Security. See also Kommersant, 24 July 1999. CDPSP, LI(30), 1999, p. 19.
Joint Statement on the Occasion of the Visit of the Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson, in Moscow on 16 February 2000 (Brussels: NATO, 2000), at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2000/p000216e.htm.
Quoted in MacAskill, ‘NATO and Russia Re-establish Ties as Tensions Ease’.
Statement by Lord Robertson, NATO Secretary General, on Acting President Putin’s Interview with the BBC (Document (2000) 02) (Brussels: NATO, 2000), at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2000/p00-023e.htm.
Quoted in G. Whittell, ‘Putin Uses Frost to Begin Thaw with West’, The Times, 6 March 2000.
Quoted in C. Bremner, ‘Russia and West to Work More Closely on Security’, The Times, 4 October 2001.
By 2001 NATO’s membership had grown to 19 states.
Noviye Izvestia, 20 November 2001. CDPSP, Vol. LIII(47), 2001, pp. 20–1; M. Evans, ‘Blair Plans Wider Role for Russia with NATO’, The Times, 17 November 2001.
Press Conference with NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, 22 November 2001 (Brussels: NATO, 2001), at .
The Reykjavik communiqué simply stated that the new council would be created and in it ‘NATO member states and Russia will work as equal partners in areas of common interest, while preserving NATO’s prerogative to act independently’. See M-NAC-1(2002)59 (Brussels: NATO, 2002), at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2002/p02–059e.htm.
I. Straus, ‘The New NATO-Russia Council in Context: One Step in a Series, Many More to Come’, Johnson’s Russia List [hereafter JRL], 6276, at http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/6276–9.cfm. See also Noviye Izvestia, 16 May 2002. CDPSP, LIV(20), 2002, p. 5; Trud, 30 May 2002. CDPSP, Vol. LIV(22), 2002, p. 4.
For differing views on what NATO members had agreed on this score, see M. Evans, ‘Russia to Move into NATO HQ’, The Times, 15 May 2002; and J. Dempsey and R. Wolffe, ‘In from the Cold’, Financial Times, 15 May 2002.
Quoted in K. Knox, ‘NATO: Alliance Mulls Details of Larger Role for Russia’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty [hereafter RFE/RL], at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1098934.html.
H. Adomeit and F. Kupferschmidt, Russia-NATO Relations: Stagnation or Revitalization? (Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2008), p. 9.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 26 September 2002. CDPSP, Vol. LIV(39), 2002, p. 16; Vremya Novostei, 21 November 2002. CDPSP, Vol. LIV(47), 2002, pp. 4–5.
See the text of Robertson’s speech, A New Russian Revolution: Partnership with NATO (Brussels: NATO, 2002), at http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s021213a.htm.
Press Conference by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson Following the Meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (Brussels: NATO, 2003), at http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2003/s030513a.htm.
M. Laruelle, ‘Russia’s Strategies in Afghanistan and their Consequences for NATO’, NATO Defence College Research Paper No. 69, November 2011, p. 2.
D. Trenin, ‘Russia Leaves the West’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85(4), 2006, p. 90.
Adomeit and Kupferschmidt, Russia-NATO Relations, p. 14.
‘Russian Ship Barred from NATO Anti-terror Patrol’, RFE/RL, at http://www.rferl.org/articleprintview/1190977.html.
Istanbul Summit Communiqué, para. 31 (Brussels: NATO, 2004), at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2004/p04–096e.htm.
For details see inter alia, Adomeit and Kupferschmidt, Russia-NATO Relations, pp. 10–14; P. Fitch, ‘Building Hope on Experience’, NATO Review 3, 2003, at ; S. Blank, The NATO-Russia Partnership: A Marriage of Convenience or a Troubled Relationship? (Carlisle PA: US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, 2006), pp. 46–53;
P. Williams, ‘NATO-Russia Military Co-operation: From Dialogue to Interoperability?’ RUSI Journal, Vol. 150(5), 2005, pp. 44–7; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 15 September 2005. CDPSP, Vol. LVII(37), 2005, p. 13; NATO’s Developing Partnerships (Document 165PCNP08E) (Brussels: NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 2008), p. 2.
This is the major theme of Adomeit and Kupferschmidt, Russia-NATO Relations. See also J. Edwards and J. Kemp (directors), Russia’s Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2006), p. 29.
J. Sherr, Culpabilities and Consequences (London: Chatham House, 2008), p. 2.
NATO in the 21st Century: Speech by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson at the Charles University in Prague (Brussels: NATO, 2002), at http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s020321a.htm.
S. Sestanovich, ‘What Has Moscow Done?’ Foreign Affairs, 87(6), 2008, pp. 16–17.
Russia’s Wrong Direction, p. 49.
Russia’s Wrong Direction, p. 40.
See inter alia, Kommersant, 20 August 2008. CDPSP, Vol. LX(33), 2008, p. 2; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 26 August 2008. CDPSP, Vol. LX(34), 2008, p. 1; ‘Medvedev Says Russia Ready to Cut Ties with NATO’, JRL, 2008–157, at http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2008-157-7.cfm.
‘Russia-NATO Logistics Cooperation Being Put on Hold — Rogozin’, JRL, 2008–158, at http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2008–157-7.htm.
Final Communiqué (Document (2008) 153), para. 25 (Brussels: NATO, 2008), at http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2008–158-15.htm.
Final Communiqué (Document (2008) 153), para. 25 (Brussels: NATO, 2008), at http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2008-158-15.htm.
Strasbourg/Kehl Summit Declaration (Brussels: NATO, 2009), at http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_52837.htm.
Russian Ambassador to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, cited in Associated Press, ‘Libya Marks Strategic Shift for NATO: Russia’, 3 September 2011 at http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/03/libya-marks-strategic-shift-for-nato-russia.html.
Rogozin, cited in R. Knops (rapporteur), ‘Missile Defence: The Way Ahead for NATO’, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Sub-Committee on Future Security and Defence Capabilities, 8 September 2011, p. 11.
Cited in Knops (rapporteur), ‘Missile Defence: The Way Ahead for NATO’, p. 11.
For a more detailed analysis of developments during this period, see Smith, Russia and NATO since 1991, Chapter 3.
The major NATO decisions during OAF were made by the so-called Quint. This informal grouping consisted of the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy.
On the importance of Russia’s role, see P. Latawski and M. A. Smith, The Kosovo Crisis and the Evolution of Post-Cold War European Security (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 97–103;
A. M. Brudenell, ‘Russia’s Role in the Kosovo Conflict of 1999’, RUSI Journal, 153(1), 2008, pp. 30–4.
The British commander of NATO ground forces at the time — Lieutenant General Sir Mike Jackson — reportedly told Clark that confronting the Russians at Pristina airport would threaten to ‘start World War III’. For Clark’s account of this incident, see Gen. W. Clark, Waging Modern War (Oxford: Public Affairs, 2001), Chapter 15. Jackson subsequently sought to downplay its significance, describing the Russian action as ‘a little sideplay’.
See Lt. Gen. Sir M. Jackson, ‘KFOR: The Inside Story’, RUSI Journal, Vol. 145(1), 2000, p. 16.
NATO 2020: Assured Security; Dynamic Engagement. Analysis and Recommendations of the Group of Experts on a New Strategic Concept for NATO (Brussels: NATO, 2010), p. 8.
NATO 2020: Assured Security; Dynamic Engagement, p. 10.
See D. Yost, ‘NATO’s Evolving Purposes and the Next Strategic Concept’, International Affairs, Vol. 86(2), 2010, p. 501.
See Latawski and Smith, The Kosovo Crisis and the Evolution of Post-Cold War European Security, p. 99ff.
Istanbul Summit Declaration (Press Release 2004 096) para. 3, at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2004/p04–096e.htm.
Bucharest Summit Declaration (Press Release 2008 049), para. 23, at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2008/p08-049e.html.
Quoted in ‘NATO: No MAP for Georgia or Ukraine, but Alliance Vows Membership’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 3 April 2008, at http://www.rferl.org/articleprintview/1079726.html.
‘NATO: Czech FM Explains the Georgia, Ukraine Compromise’, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, 4 April 2008, at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1079737.html.
These were the status of Kosovo, the future of the CFE treaty, missile defence and NATO enlargement.
Meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the level of Heads of State and Government held in Bucharest (Brussels: NATO, 2008), at http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2008/p08-050e.html.
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M. Webber, Inclusion, Exclusion and the Governance of European Security (Manchester etc.: Manchester University Press, 2007), pp. 16–18.
This definition of identity change is derived from M. Finnemore, National Interests and International Society (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp. 5–13.
I. B. Neumann and V. Pouliot, ‘Untimely Russia: Hysteresis in Russian-Western Relations over the Past Millennium’, Security Studies, Vol. 20(1), 2011, pp. 105–37.
V. Pouliot, International Security in Practice: The Politics of NATO-Russia Diplomacy (Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 2.
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R. Sakwa, ‘Russia and Europe: Whose Society?’ Journal of European Integration, Vol. 33(2), 2011, p. 197–214.
Perceptions of Russia: A Survey among European and American Elites (Berlin: The Aspen Institute, 2005).
D. Averre, ‘From Pristina to Tskhinvali: The Legacy of Operation Allied Force in Russia’s Relations with the West’, International Affairs, Vol. 85(3), 2009, p. 591.
‘Joint Statement at NATO-Russia Council Meeting’, Lisbon, 20 November 2010 at http://www.america.gov/st/texttransenglish/2010/November/20101120161455su0.8716787.html.
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© 2012 Mark Webber, James Sperling and Martin A. Smith
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Webber, M., Sperling, J., Smith, M.A. (2012). NATO-Russia Relations. In: NATO’s Post-Cold War Trajectory. New Security Challenges Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137271617_5
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