Mutual Perception of Russia and the United States through the Prism of Strategic Foreign Policy Documents (1991—2023)

Abstract

The article considers the mutual perception of Russia and the United States in the core foreign policy documents published in the period from 1991 to 2023. Attempts to explore the mutual perception of the two countries through the prism of official foreign policy documents and, moreover, over a long period of time, allowing to see evolutionary changes, have not yet been made. In the course of the study, the author came to the following main conclusions. Since 1991, Russia and the United States have maintained a consistently high interest in each other, but their mutual perception, expressed on a doctrinal level, is developing in a progressively negative way. From 1991 to 2023, the image of the United States has radically changed in the eyes of Russia — from a priority partner and potential ally to a country that represents the main threat; from the world’s leading democracy to a global hegemon and a neocolonial power; from the indisputable world leader to one of the sovereign centres of global development. Since 1991, the United States has also fundamentally changed its perception of Russia — from a new democracy to an autocracy; from a valuable partner to an existential threat, an extremely dangerous country and a revisionist power; from a weak, struggling state to a key center of influence in the world. The Ukrainian crisis that broke out in 2014 has became a really turning point in terms of the parties’ transition to an explicitly negative mutual perception within their foreign policy documents.  The onset of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine in 2022 has only reinforced this trend. Given the growing antagonism in the mutual perception of the two countries, one can expect either a further escalation of tension in their relations, fraught with a direct clash, or a detente. As foreign policy documents show, each of the parties does not reject mutual cooperation and normalization of relations, but fundamentally conditions them, expecting certain actions from the other side.