Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center and Global Energy Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Ariel Cohen writes for The National Interest on the potential confrontation between Russia and the United States over Syria:
Last week, Russia hit Syria with 26 Kalibr cruise missiles fired from its warships in the Caspian Sea. The strikes mirrored the U.S. Tomahawk missile strikes against Iraq and Afghanistan of the past decade. This is the first time Russia is using military force outside the Soviet perimeter since the collapse of the USSR, returning to play global power politics. If Russia stumbles into a Cold War—or worse—it may be costly, if not fatal.
Fighting in Syria seems to be heating up, making a proxy conflict and potential confrontation between Russia and the USA more probable than ever since the end of the Cold War.
This is not new. Great powers have rubbed each other the wrong way before. In some cases, confrontations have led to de-escalation, in others—to more conflict. In 1898, the Fashoda incident brought the British and French Empires to the brink of war.