Should the United States Rethink Its Russia Policy?

In this episode of our special Election 2020 series of The President’s Inbox, Rajan Menon and Ambassador Stephen Sestanovich join host James M. Lindsay to discuss past and current U.S. policy toward Russia.

Play Button Pause Button
0:00 0:00
x
Host
  • James M. Lindsay
    Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
Episode Guests
  • Rajan Menon
    Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in Political Science, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at the City College of New York
  • Stephen Sestanovich
    George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Show Notes

In this special Election 2020 series of The President’s Inbox, James M. Lindsay sits down each week with two experts with different views on how the United States should handle its foreign policy challenges. This week, he discusses Russia with Rajan Menon, a professor at the Powell School at the City College of New York, and Ambassador Stephen Sestanovich, CFR’s George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies.

 

Read Lindsay’s takeaways from their conversation and find further readings on his blog, The Water’s Edge.

 

The special Election 2020 episodes of The President’s Inbox are made possible in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament

W.J. Hennigan, a correspondent for the Opinion section of the New York Times, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the risk of nuclear war in an era of growing geopolitical competition. 

Grand Strategy

Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss whether and where the United States should be less involved in the world. This episode is the first in a special The President’s Inbox series on U.S. grand strategy.

Immigration and Migration

Dara Lind, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the record surge in migrants and asylum seekers crossing the U.S. southern border.

Top Stories on CFR

Indonesia

Prabowo Subianto was named the winner of the Indonesian presidential election. But it is unclear which version of Prabowo—the more moderate candidate from the campaign trail or the self-styled strongman—will govern Indonesia.

Russia

The mass casualty theater attack in Moscow was a reminder that affiliates of the Islamic State have reorganized and infiltrated even powerful states.

India

With India's development continuing to gain steam, one of the biggest challenges will be to avoid the mistake that others have made when they failed to recognize their newly acquired global systemic influence and adapt accordingly. Both China and Big Tech show that it is never too early to start managing one's own rise.