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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Cold War ideational legacies and contemporary US foreign policy towards Russia Parker, David John Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 COLD WAR IDEATIONAL LEGACIES AND CONTEMPORARY US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS RUSSIA David Parker King’s College London Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in War Studies August 2015 1 ABSTRACT This thesis explores how Cold War ideational legacies shape contemporary US foreign policy towards Russia and identifies mechanisms that serve to sustain them. It argues that post-Cold War US foreign policy towards Russia has been, and remains, heavily influenced by policy-maker and analytical elite understandings of, and experiences during, the Cold War. The thesis outlines, across three case studies, the influence of different, often conflicting, ideational legacies in different contexts and highlights the institutionalisation of some legacies which contributes to their sustained influence across different administrations. Influenced by these ideational legacies, the ways in which US actors interpret the world and the assumptions they make affect reality as well as reflect it, contributing to policies often detrimental to US-Russian relations. This thesis is a qualitative approach to the subject. It draws on interview data and documentary analysis of US government policy and planning papers, official statements and speeches, as well as the speeches and reports of US analytical elites, to examine the role of Cold War ideational legacies in shaping US foreign policy towards Russia between 1993 and 2011. To assess the influence of ideational legacies a Constructivist approach is utilised and supplemented with elements from the International Relations sub-field Foreign Policy Analysis in order to locate the analysis of ideas and identity onto the domestic level. The analysis is applied to three case studies: NATO enlargement in the 1990s; US democracy promotion in the post- Soviet space between 2001 and 2009 and; the negotiation and ratification of the New START Treaty. The thesis focuses on three main research questions. The primary research question is how did Cold War ideational legacies influence US foreign policy towards Russia in the post-Cold War era? This primary question generates two supplementary questions. The first supplementary question is what ideational legacies derived from US policy-makers understandings of, and experiences during, the Cold War and its ending? The second is what mechanisms sustained the Cold War ideational legacies? 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a great many people that have, in different ways, helped and supported me over the course of my doctoral research. I would not have been able to complete my thesis without their support and I am extremely grateful to each of them. My first thanks must go to my PhD supervisor, Dr. Ruth Deyermond. Dr Deyermond has been a consistently engaged and committed supervisor and has continually provided me with valuable feedback and guidance. I am extremely grateful for her dedication. Many others have also supported the development of the thesis. These include individuals that agreed to be interviewed for the project. Many wish to remain anonymous but the time they gave up to share their insights with me made a huge difference to my understanding of the subject and they have my deep appreciation. I am also enormously grateful to all those that gave up their free time to help with proof reading. In this regard I am especially grateful to Heather, Ayesha, Birthe, Ingmar and Anna. I owe a great deal to my Prevent colleagues at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The team has been endlessly patient with me throughout this project and have picked up my slack when I have had time off to focus on research. Particular thanks go to my manager Pinakin Patel. Across the course of my study Pinakin has been nothing but supportive. For allowing me to work part-time across the duration of my PhD programme, permitting me to continually change my working days so that I could gain experience as a Teaching Assistant at King’s College London, being flexible with my leave in order for me to travel to conferences and for generally putting up with me I am extremely grateful. Equally important have been my friends in London. Writing a thesis can be a lonely business so valued friends are all the more important. There are too many to name individually but I am especially grateful for the support and friendship of: Rich, Tom (WP), Amy, Simon, Simon P, Ed, Sarah, Emma, Martin, Gemma, Paul and Luciano. 3 I would also like to thank my school teachers – in particular Mr Norton and Mr Featherstone. It was Mr Norton’s passion for history and his ability to bring it to life that first sparked my interest in Russia’s role in the world and introduced me to topics that I continue to study fifteen years later. Mr Featherstone’s classes were some of the most enjoyable I have had across my many years of education. They not only made me realise that study could be a pleasure rather than a requirement but also gave me a confidence in my own academic ability that had not been there previously. My final, and most important, thanks go to my family. In providing me with a ‘mate’s rate’ bedroom, moral support and endless Russell Brand stories to keep me entertained over long weekends of work I am grateful to El, Cat, my grandparents and Jon. Their kindness in the final few weeks of the project was invaluable. Finally, I want to thank my parents. I am, of course, grateful for all the practical support they have given me across the duration of the research. More importantly though, I am grateful for thirty-two years of limitless encouragement, support, comfort and guidance. I could not have completed this thesis, or any of my achievements, without them. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Table of Contents 5 Acronyms 10 Tables 12 Introduction 13 Introduction 13 The Puzzle: Post-Cold War US-Russian Relations 16 The Importance of Russia to US Foreign Policy and Security Goals 16 Challenges to Progress 19 Cyclical Relations 21 Inconsistent US Policy and Mixed Messages 24 The Rationale 29 Literature Review 30 Relevance of the Project 36 Methodology and Analytical Lens 40 Case Study, Time Period, Actor and Source Selection 40 Analytical Lens 44 Thesis Limitations 45 Thesis Structure 47 Chapter One: Theoretical Lens – Constructivism and Foreign Policy Analysis 49 Introduction 49 Ideational Legacies 50 A Constructivist Lens 55 Core and Specific Elements of Constructivism 57 History and Previous Interactions 58 5 Private Knowledge 59 Domestic Actors 60 Self-Perpetuating Cultures and Behaviours 61 Sub-field Support 64 Institutionalised Practices and Assumptions 65 Individuals 68 Narratives and Historical Memory 70 Decoding Information and Framing 71 Conclusion 72 Chapter Two: Policy-maker Understandings of the Cold War 74 Introduction 74 Cold War Influences 77 Policy-maker Understandings of the Cold War 80 Understanding 1 – Irreconcilable Political Systems and Values: U S Democracy and Freedom vs. Soviet Tyranny and Repression 80 Understanding 2 – Morality: Good vs. Evil 89 Understanding 3 – Mistrust: Open and Benign vs. Deceitful and Secretive 93 Understanding 4 – A Global Zero-sum Battle between the Leader of the Free World and an Aggressive Soviet Empire 97 Understanding 5 – US Model Superior, Making Change in the USSR Possible 101 Understanding 6 – Limited Cooperation Necessary 103 Understandings of the Cold War’s Conclusion and Expectations for the Post-Cold Era 106 The United States Won the Cold War and the Soviet Union Lost 106 United States a Unique and Global Leader 109 Democracy the Final Form of Government 112 Russia Will Move Towards the West in Domestic and Foreign Policy 116 Threats Remain, Including from Nuclear Weapons 118 Conclusion 119 6 Chapter Three: NATO Enlargement in the 1990s 121 Introduction 121 Context: Structures, Constraints and Opportunities 123 Ideational Legacy 1: NATO Enlargement as a Means to Consolidate Cold War Ideological Victory 130 Introduction 130 Cold War Influences 131 Increased Political Role of NATO 136 Perceptions of a New Geopolitical Reality: Europe Whole and