Reawakening an Empire

US Pres Barack Obama likes to say that America and the world have progressed beyond the unpleasantness of the 19th century and much of the rest of human history. Few would think to compare Obama to Russia's last czar, Nicholas II. Nevertheless, Emperor Nicholas II, like Pres Obama, thought of himself as a man of peace. Nicholas II declared that there would be no war between Russia and Japan on multiple occasions on the eve of their 1904-1905 conflict. From the outside, the Obama administration appears to be following a similar trajectory in its approach to Russia. So far, the US has fundamentally miscalculated in dealing with Russia. The realities of the rival Soviet bloc created objective constraints on how far Washington policy makers were prepared to go and enforced intellectual discipline in their decision making. While Russia is still primarily a regional power, its size and geography make that region a very substantial one. Adapted from the source document.