Economically, Russia is not a powerful nation and offers very little value to the U.S. in terms of growing our economy.
Geographically, while parts of Russia are proximate to Alaska, from a trade route perspective it is far away, and U.S. – Russia trade is relatively insignificant.
Militarily, Russia is a major concern, not because it poses a realistic and imminent existential threat to the U.S., but because it has substantial military capacity, both conventional and cyber. More importantly, Russia has demonstrated its willingness to engage militarily without regard for collateral consequences. One need only look at Georgia, Ukraine (Crimea), and Syria for recent examples. And Russia is willing to be opportunistic and mischievous when it comes to exerting its influence. Look at Syria and Venezuela. Russia is also willing to use its vast and powerful cyber capacity as a modern form of warfare, whether by interfering in elections around the world, or initiating cyber-attacks and cyber-espionage. For all of these reasons, we must engage with Russia on many levels.
Politically, we have very little in common with Russia when it comes to sharing core values and aspirations for our mutual societies, and absolutely nothing to be gained from political engagement with the Russian Federation. In fact, our two political systems are, and always have been, in conflict. This has become increasingly obvious, over the last several years when it has become apparent how involved Russia has been in trying to interfere in our electoral process. With the advent of social media, and the increasingly large role it plays in choosing our leaders, people have become anxious about the influence our competitors have in this process. This is not confined to Russia. We know that Iran, China, North Korea and others with technical capacity are also heavily involved in these efforts. This does not worry me. It should come as no surprise that other nations try to interfere in our elections. That is not a new thing. It has always been that way, and it is their job. It is more apparent now because through social media and other technology, the tools are more accessible and the methods more intrusive. They are doing what competitors are supposed to do – try to disrupt the competition and create an environment that is advantageous to their own interests. But just because people try to do something doesn’t mean they are being successful. We really have two options in dealing with this potential threat:
1) Recognize it for what it is, manage it and not be negatively influenced by it, or 2) Consider it to be an existential threat to our way of life, declare it an act of war and retaliate.
I recommend the first option. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think the American people are so gullible and easily manipulated by a bunch of scheming, programmers in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran or Pyongyang, writing sinister algorithms to try and sway opinion in favor of candidates one way or another. In reality, I think the danger increases when we start to believe that is possible, and react in ways that are irrational and counterproductive.
In any case, I doubt these types of influences can be stopped, in a nation where we value freedom of speech and expression. The antidote, it seems to me, is to be more active and engaged in the process and more discerning; more rigorous in our evaluation of our political process and our systems for choosing and electing our leaders.