Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Cohen argues that 2015 witnessed the crumbling of the US-led post-1991 international world order, many of the changes, for better or worse, pivoting around the New Cold War. While media attention is currently focused on the conflict over Syria and the Islamic State, Cohen points out that the political epicenter of the Cold War remains in Ukraine.

Cohen and Batchelor discuss attempts by opponents of a new US-Russian detente to thwart Secretary of State Kerry’s recent diplomatic agreements with President Putin, particularly in regard to Syria. The conversation then turns to positions taken by American presidential candidates. Cohen notes that in their most recent debate, Senator Sanders set out a foreign policy approach to Russia and international terrorism distinctly unlike that of Mrs. Clinton. Cohen also clarifies what Putin actually said about Donald Trump. Approving the message, not the messenger, Cohen hopes that Trump’s positive comments about Putin will result in a public discussion of the baselessly demonized Russian president as a needed US national-security partner.