Is Obama’s ‘Reset’ of U.S.-Russian Relations Working?

Stephen Cohen, who is fluent in Russian and has longstanding and unique ties to top American and Russian policy-makers, briefed Network 20/20 members on his research into the rising possibility of a new Cold War. Drawing on his book Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives, he discussed Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia – which was an attempt to reverse what he sees as the disastrous policies of both Clinton and Bush – and analyzed whether it is working. He then brought up the unseen struggle among policymakers in both Washington and Moscow and its enormous implications for today’s world order, as reported in his new book The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin.

Stephen Cohen has traveled widely in the former USSR, is a close personal friend of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and was an advisor to President George H.W. Bush. He taught politics and Russian Studies at Princeton University for 30 years and is currently a professor at NYU. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is a contributing editor for The Nation, which is edited by his wife, Katrina vanden Heuvel.