The Power of Perception: a Neoclassical Realist analysis of US-Russia relations

The question of whether we are currently in a ‘New Cold War’ or not has been widely debated by the media, politicians, and within the academ-ic field, and as such remains a pertinent issue worthy of exploration. Interactions between the US and Russia over recent years have highlighted some clear tensions within the strained relationship, and the Ukrainian crisis has certainly not helped in dispelling the cold war narrative propa-gated by a new brigade of cold warriors. This perspective, held by authors such as Edward Lucas (2014), views the Russian state as embarking on a quest to regain the power and prestige that the Soviet Union formally held, and perceives Moscow’s foreign policy to be inherently aggressive and an explicit challenge to the current world order. This research however seeks to counter the dominant viewpoint which places the two states within yet another conflictual framework, further perpetuating the destabilisation of their current relations. Instead a more nuanced