Die Herausforderung durch Massenvernichtungswaffen

In: Rußland und die Irak-Krise 1997, T. 2

In: Berichte des Bundesinstituts für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, 37-1998

Abstract

Russia has regarded its incontestable diplomatic success in the Iraq crisis of 1997/98 as its comeback as a world power and at the same time a decisive step on the way to a new "multipolarity" in world politics after the Cold War - the topic of the first of these two Berichte ("reports"). It is the goal of Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov to compensate for the enormous weaknesses of today's Russia by means of deft diplomacy, above all by mediating in crises, thus demonstrating Russia's decisive presence in international affairs. By again playing a "great power" role, he apparently wants to help create the new internal consensus necessary to reconsolidate the state. The obvious weaknesses of the American strategy in face of the Iraq crisis - weaknesses which to a decisive extent were a consequence of the special dilemmas posed by an implicitly terrorist challenge with chemical and biological weapons - were made use of by Moscow as an opportunity for its re-entry into world politics. (BIOst-Dok)