Russiagate: A Double-Edged Sword for US-Russia Relations in the Process of Changing the International Order and Mapping a New Geopolitical World

Although US-Russia relations have been discussed on both sides as an important agenda item in policy-making discussions, not enough attention has been paid to this issue in the international academic and intellectual community. This study aims to analyse this issue from a theoretical and pragmatic perspective, providing a more realistic understanding to underpin policy-making decisions in the context of the uncertainty and instability of a changing international order. The new confrontation between the United States and Russia has revived aspects of the Cold War, where the balance of power was maintained through nuclear weapons. An arms race without treaties and concrete US-Russian negotiations would threaten the international order more than ever before. The US-Russia relations are still adversarial with both sides’ competition in geopolitical relations to preserve the balance of power. This study argues that geopolitical competition has accelerated the arms race toward deterrence and containment. US-Russia relations remain one of the most important, but rarely discussed, issues in contemporary academic scholarship.