The breakdown of talks between the United States and Russia over the Syrian conflict signifies not only a new escalation in the conflict, but also a new plummet in bilateral relations below the level of a “normal” Cold War. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry probably seeking a deal with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and assumed more Russian goodwill and interest in joint counterterrorism operations than really existed.
Meanwhile, other Russian provocations—cyberattacks related to the U.S. election, mock attacks on U.S. ships and planes in the Baltic and Black Seas, and Putin’s withdrawal from a plutonium disposal agreement, for example—might indicate that the Kremlin is deliberately pushing relations to a new low, presumably to pressure the next U.S. president into initiating a new “reset.” Could a nearly inevitable new spasm of the Syrian war propel the U.S.-Russia discord into open hostility?