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“Cold Friends, Wrapped in Mink and Medals,” by Bill Keller (Week in Review, Aug. 17), says that Moscow and Beijing have forgotten to close the history books. Based on the American response to the fighting in Georgia, Washington should be added to that list.
Washington has asserted unconditional friendship with President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, and snubbed Russia with the Poland missile treaty while labeling Russia an international pariah. Recent history shows that cold war thinking will secure neither people nor pipelines.
The only good that can come of the Georgian-Russian war is if we heed its lessons and adopt a radically different approach: recognize our shared interests in a stable Caucasus and build creative relationships of mutual security, firmly closing the cold war era.
Imagine a new multilateral arrangement of the sort that was unthinkable in Europe after World War II — first the Caucasus Community and eventually the Caucasus Union!
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