Strategic Partnership and Security Architecture

West Russia: The acrimonious statements by both sides illustrate the long-standing differences over how the Euro-Atlantic security architecture functions, and whether there is a need to redesign it, according to The Moscow Times. It has also shown the limits of "strategic partnership." Hopes for strategic partnership between the West and Russia have ground to a halt as it has become clear that interests that are "common" are not "shared." Both Russia and the West are anxious to counter international terrorism, for example, or prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It has revealed fundamental differences in how post-Cold War European security is understood. But it is also clear that each side defines the causes, nature, location and scale of these interests differently — even the approaches are mutually contradictory, since one side blames the other for causing the problem or considers the other proposals likely to exacerbate it. For a decade already it has been increasingly clear that the West and Russia are divided over their understanding of the nature of democracy, including over questions such as human rights and the role of the state in society. At the same time, there is increasing friction over values. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.