Trump’s personal desire to improve relations with Russia is checked by pressure at home and abroad to remain tough.

The meeting between Trump and Putin shows that great powers can co-exist peacefully instead of confronting one another.

The US must demonstrate that cyber attacks and manipulation of social media will incur costs.

The US and Russia should stop their geopolitical game in Syria, respect its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and let the people of Syria choose their own path.

Moves taken by the US oftentimes pushes the other two countries closer together.

What will a changing Russian foreign policy mean for China?

After a friendly start, relations between the Trump administration and Russia soon soured. Will this relationship remain strained?

Whatever Trump or Putin might want, US-Russia relations are set to deteriorate, as the forces pulling the two countries apart are stronger than those holding them together.

On August 2, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.” With Trump-Putin relations agitated and China and the U.S. still lacking cooperation on the issue of North Korea, who will be the biggest loser amidst the superpowers? Who will benefit from the sanctions?

Soft power can reach goals through attraction and persuasion rather than threats of coercion or offers of payment. Information warfare can be used offensively to disempower rivals, and this could be considered “negative soft power.” By attacking the values of others, one can reduce their attractiveness and thus their relative soft power.