In the Shadow of the Cold War: Structural Analysis on US-Russia Relations

This paper attempts to examine US-Russia relations which have relatively lacked systematic analysis compared to US-China relations. It first introduces the existing literature on US-Russia relations and clarifies their limits. It then takes a closer look at the fundamental structures of the Cold War in the 20th century to draw an analytical framework as current US-Russia relations largely originate from US-Soviet relations in the previous century. As for the case study, it investigates the recent conditions of US-Russia relations under the three general theses of ‘power equivalence (i.e., power balance),’ ‘propaganda campaigns,’ and ‘proxy wars and nuclear close calls,’ each of which is represented by ‘the existence of MAD (i.e., Vertical Nuclear Proliferation),’ ‘information warfare between the U.S and Russia,’ and ‘Russo-Ukrainian War since 2014,’ respectively. After the analysis of the recent conditions of US-Russia relations described in the case study, it concludes that US-Russia relations today significantly resemble US-Soviet relations in the 20th century (i.e., the Cold War).