This lecture by Dr. Robin Brooks will discuss how, by prioritizing competition with Russia over bilateral relations with Eastern European countries, the U.S. damaged both its own national interests and those of its Eastern European partners. It engages the academic and policy debates over the desirability of resurrecting (or maintaining) the Cold War system of “spheres of interest” to preserve stability and contain potential expansion by one or the other side. It argues that reliance on “spheres of interest” may undermine, rather than support, U.S. national interests.
The main case study for the discussion is U.S. support for European energy security and independence. Specifically, I examine advocacy on behalf of Westinghouse’s bid to build nuclear power plants in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and lobbying to prevent construction of Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline. Brooks will argue that these activities were not able to help achieve energy security or independence for the countries in question or for Europe, largely because they were based precisely on competition with Russia, rather than on U.S. or host country interests.
Turning in detail to Bulgaria, Brooks will then assert that rather than sparking transparent debate and fact-based decisions about energy needs and the likely results of various possible paths to energy diversification, the potential availability of a Westinghouse reactor provided Bulgaria’s government with an easy excuse to play a game of tit-for-tat between American and Russian projects. This bolstered anti-U.S. media and corrupt politicians (both of which have ties to Russia and to organized crime), undermined the rule of law, and alienated and disempowered the previously pro-U.S. middle class and student protest movement. Moreover, the apparent prioritization of any project that directly competed with a Russian one over numerous other Western commercial ventures in Bulgaria – including in the energy sphere – created space for corrupt local businesses with Russia ties to flourish. Finally, this situation also circumscribed possibilities for cooperation that would have helped develop Bulgaria as a reliable partner to the U.S. on security issues, including combating transnational organized crime and terrorism.
Robin S. Brooks is the Davis Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. A Foreign Service Officer since 2004, Dr. Brooks has served at the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, U.S. Embassies in Moscow, Sofia, and Ankara, and as Chief of Staff to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an A.B. from Smith College. Her research interests include Eastern European and Bulgarian politics, ethnic identity, and Russia’s relations with the countries of East- and Central Asia.
Co-sponsored by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies.
