Honestly, genuinely, this should have been the primary driver going forward; especially after the fall of Communism. From a geopolitical standpoint, our failure to negotiate friendly relations with Russia is the greatest diplomatic failure of the 21st century so far. The Europeans were terrified of an Ameri-Russo Alliance before WW1 & the British "Special Relationship". It was abundantly clear, even by 1880, that the Americans and Russians would be industrial super-powers that couldn't be contended or countered by the likes of France, Britain, or the rising Germany. If any of those nations wanted to stand a chance at defending their power from either group, something diplomatically would have to be done.
Bismark spent the majority of his time destroying France diplomatically, but the other portion of his time, but before WW1 there were major attempts to ally Germany with Russia that completely fell through. Meanwhile, the British quickly realized the insurmountable power of the American fleets, and new something had to be done to keep the US from going to war with them. At last count, they had fought two wars with the US, and hadn't won either of them, at a time when America didn't even have a fucking steam engine. The French were all over the place, and shit up chances of allying with America and Russia in the past century, and right up to the August Crisis.
If we had made any real attempt at making major overtures to Russia prior to WW1 we probably could have prevented both World Wars and the Cold War. Instead of recognizing the value of an Ameri-Russo Alliance as a massive counter to China, we're shitting it up so that members of the Deep State can make boat payments at the cost of 300,000 Ukranian lives.
Honestly, genuinely, this should have been the primary driver going forward; especially after the fall of Communism. From a geopolitical standpoint, our failure to negotiate friendly relations with Russia is the greatest diplomatic failure of the 21st century so far. The Europeans were terrified of an Ameri-Russo Alliance before WW1 & the British "Special Relationship". It was abundantly clear, even by 1880, that the Americans and Russians would be industrial super-powers that couldn't be contended or countered by the likes of France, Britain, or the rising Germany. If any of those nations wanted to stand a chance at defending their power from either group, something diplomatically would have to be done.
Bismark spent the majority of his time destroying France diplomatically, but the other portion of his time, but before WW1 there were major attempts to ally Germany with Russia that completely fell through. Meanwhile, the British quickly realized the insurmountable power of the American fleets, and new something had to be done to keep the US from going to war with them. At last count, they had fought two wars with the US, and hadn't won either of them, at a time when America didn't even have a fucking steam engine. The French were all over the place, and shit up chances of allying with America and Russia in the past century, and right up to the August Crisis.
If we had made any real attempt at making major overtures to Russia prior to WW1 we probably could have prevented both World Wars and the Cold War. Instead of recognizing the value of an Ameri-Russo Alliance as a massive counter to China, we're shitting it up so that members of the Deep State can make boat payments at the cost of 300,000 Ukranian lives.