by Cheryl Rofer
With all the other news this week (wash your hands!), there hasn’t been a lot reported on diplomatic moves. That doesn’t mean nothing is happening, though. A lot of diplomacy is done under the radar, which may be by design or not. Unless there’s something to announce or leak in the service of diplomatic goals, that’s fine for negotiations.
Here’s something that didn’t make the headlines, although it’s a nice example of what Russia is doing to improve relations with the United States. All I can find is a little piece in the dead-tree Nation (4 May). Stephen F. Cohen, now a professor at New York University and a commentator who has nicely made the mental shift from the Soviet Union to Russia, was denied a visa to the Soviet Union because of his writings. But now Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has bestowed the highest state honor on Cohen, the Order of Friendship, “for his large contribution to strengthening Russian-American cooperation.”
There are several messages there: that this isn’t your father’s Soviet Union (probably the most interesting), the personal one to Cohen, and a reaching-out to Americans.
But Russia continues to make clear that it has its own national interests, which include preventing American missile defense installations in Europe. That’s part of setting up their position for the START talks, for which, as I noted yesterday, the preliminaries have begun.
Some further thoughts on the upcoming negotiations. I have also been concerned about the short timeline and the additional issues being piled on. But focusing on a few may turn out to be part of the preliminary confidence-building, which we need after eight years of trashing the relationship.
In other parts of the globe, here’s what Dennis Ross may be good for.