The budding U.S.-Russia ‘bromance’
If Harvard hosted a panel in 1991 on U.S.-Soviet relations, it’s a good bet that the term “bromance” didn’t come up. But Scottish historian Niall Ferguson used that phrase Wednesday night, referring to the cozy relationship between Russia’s president and the U.S. president-elect, thereby showing just how drastically things have changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of a new Russia. Moderated by Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard Kennedy School, the panel, called “25 Years After the Collapse of the Soviet Union: What Comes Next?,” drew a standing-room crowd to the Starr Auditorium. Allison began by screening the well-known video of the red flag coming down over the Kremlin, and then posed questions to the panelists. What went right and what went wrong in the wake of the Soviet collapse? And if we...