Rossiiskaya Gazeta

Or Strategic Havoc Last year was quite eventful in military-strategic terms. Russia and the United States remained locked in tough-going talks over strategic arms reductions. The odds are they may soon deliver a treaty.

The year 2009 brought closure to the first decade of the 21st century and – largely although not completely – to the entire post-Cold-War period in Euro-Atlantic politics. It also closed an era in Russian domestic and foreign policies marked by the country’s recovery as a state and a steep strengthening of its international and political positions.

Let me share with you some thoughts born from the discussions of a report on a new Euro-Atlantic security architecture. The report, being prepared by the Russian group of the Valdai Club which I have been chairing for the last six years, will be presented in Moscow and London in December this year.

Russian-U.S. relations are currently developing in an international environment that stands in dramatic contrast to the Cold War era and the period of transition that followed it. This new situation is marked by the following factors: – An overall decline of governability in international relations that are undergoing renationalization as certain countries seek to regain central international roles for themselves;

The year 2009 is a year of a seemingly magic combination of the anniversaries of many events that have shaped the world we live in. But the main anniversary in 2009 is 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

Sergei Karaganov Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy Igor Yurgens Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development The present overall crisis requires a comprehensive restructuring of the outdated and ineffective system of international governance.