The Multipolar World: Partnering with Russia to Stop Iran

T. Belman. I have been advocating this grand bargain for a few years now. See,  Contemplating a US-Russia Alliance.

Mark Langfan the same, When Putin drops hints, the West should listen

By Brandon J. Weichert, AMERICAN THINKER

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What few acknowledge is that the North Koreans came to the negotiating table because of the increasing pressure that the Trump administration placed on China.  Trump used tripolar diplomacy (among the United States, China, and North Korea) to bring North Korea to heel.  Just as China is North Korea’s most important partner, Russia is Iran’s most important ally.  Thus, Trump must replay his strategic gambit of using tripolar diplomacy to prevent a seemingly implacable rogue state – this time Iran – from threatening the world.

Welcome to Multipolarity!

Reaching out to Russia is something the president has been prevented from doing, thanks to the partisan hackery of Trump’s opponents in Washington.  According to these partisans, Trump colluded with Russian intelligence to steal the 2016 election (a claim that remains unproven), therefore any diplomatic overture to Russia is politically toxic for Trump.

The Russians want to make a deal with Trump; they continue engaging in hostile rhetoric as part of their overall program of “escalating to de-escalate” world crises.  Yet Trump has not gotten the message because the Democrats are preventing him from picking up the phone.  As with all negotiations, there is a window of opportunity before the negotiations cannot be had…and that window is closing fast.

Without making a great geopolitical deal with Russia (which would mean creating a real peace over Ukraine and better defining NATO’s eastern borders) – and soon – the chance to do for the Iran threat what Trump has managed to do with the North Korean threat will evaporate.  And, absent any meaningful diplomacy alongside Moscow, the region will slide into a terrible nuclear arms race that will eventuate in a larger gruesome war.

Russia has taken on the characteristics of its autocrat, Vladimir Putin.  As Fiona Hill observed at The National Interest, Russia wants respect more than anything else.  The Russian Federation wants to be viewed as a world power equal to that of the United States – a fact that was codified in Russia’s 2002 national security strategy document.  Such desires on the part of Putin explain why Moscow has been calling for a multipolar world for years.

While it might harm Washington’s ego to treat Moscow as an equal partner in world affairs, the only way to mollify the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program – without a major war against Iran (and absent another silver bullet to use on Iran, like the Stuxnet cyber-attack) – is to grant Russia the respect Putin believes he and his country deserve.  Thanks to the restrictive sanctions regime that President Trump has imposed on Russia, the United States has leverage.  By dangling the prospect of a grand bargain between Moscow and Washington over key disagreements, the United States would likely be able to get Russia to work with it on ending the threat posed by Iran.

Life in a multipolar world order is complex; often enemies must work together to balance against greater, shared threats (such as the case with Iran) while, at times, pursuing shared opportunities.  Let’s not miss this opportunity out of moral squeamishness, pride, or misplaced partisan rancor.

Brandon J. Weichert is a geopolitical analyst who runs The Weichert Report, is a contributing editor at American Greatness, and is a contributor at The American Spectator.  His writings appear often in Real Clear Politics and RealClearPolicy.  He can be reached on Twitter at @WeTheBrandon.