Photo by Jon Tyson

There are various reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but there is one important factor that has not been sufficiently explored. The Soviet Union in the 1980s had become increasingly irrelevant. The irrelevance was particularly obvious in international economics, where the Soviet ruble was not a convertible currency; in international diplomacy, where the Soviet Union played no major role in the Middle East or the Global South; and in international ideology, where the Soviet model was a non-factor. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze understood that one of the major tasks of the Soviet Union was to restore Soviet relevance in all of these areas. They had to grapple with the troglodytes in the Soviet leadership to reach this goal. They tried, but they never achieved their goal.

We have our own troglodytes, although the United States is not facing the threat of dissolution. Donald Trump’s executive actions are clearly weakening the international standing of the United States and begging the question of U.S. relevance in terms of its political, diplomatic, and even economic standing. A strong case can be made that the U.S. role in international diplomacy is already weakening. The United States is no longer a major factor in the diplomacy of arms control and disarmament. In fact, the U.S. emphasis on a national missile defense (the so-called Golden Dome) will worsen the strategic environment, and encourage many others to enhance their strategic offensive arsenals to overwhelm a Golden Dome or simply pursue their own nuclear weapons. The Golden Dome will never be able to achieve its objective of providing strategic stability.. I will address the flaws of the........

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