In a book set to drop in the thick of Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine, William Barr writes that “demonizing [Vladimir] Putin is not a foreign policy,” nor “the way grown-ups should think.”
In a copy of the forthcoming book by Trump’s ex-attorney general, One Damn Thing After Another, viewed by The Daily Beast, the hatchet man writes that an imminent conflict with China means America should try to find “a more constructive relationship” with Russia. But: “Unfortunately, with the media ready to pounce on President Trump as a Russian stooge—if not a Manchurian candidate—at the slightest sign of détente, the President’s hands were severely tied, particularly during an election year.”
“This is not the way grown-ups should think,” Barr continues, before inveighing on a dynamic that has changed rapidly in the time between drafting and the book hitting the shelves.
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“The threat posed by Russia has changed dramatically since the fall of the Soviet Union,” Barr offers. “The Russian Federation of today has roughly half the population the old Soviet Union had, and less than half the U.S. population. The larger Warsaw Pact countries—Poland, the former East Germany—are now part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The combined defense budgets of the three big Western European countries—Britain, France, and Germany—are comparable to Russia’s. While Russia still has a potent nuclear arsenal, the prospect of Russian tanks rolling to the English Channel—a realistic scenario during the Cold War—is just not plausible now. Further, while some Russian foreign policy goals are in tension with our own, Russia’s leaders no longer promote a revolutionary ideology that foreordains general antagonism with the West. For them, foreign policy is now more purely a matter of Realpolitik.”
Barr goes on to say that he fears a “wavering, intermittently alert” President Biden may give Putin space to “pursue Russian strategic goals more assertively.”
“Given Biden’s manifest weakness, Putin is likely to feel he’s better off making no concessions at all,” he adds.
Barr concludes: “Demonizing Putin is not a foreign policy. If the world is still in one piece after Biden’s term, the United States needs to explore the feasibility of putting our relations with Russia on a more positive footing.”
