A Study of the Activities of NATO-Russia Council: Ups and Downs in the Cooperation of NATO and Russia from the Beginning till 2009

The relations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russian Federation as two prominent political actors in international relations are of great importance. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the NATO as the biggest and most important politico-military organization started its relations with Russian federation as the inheritor of the former Soviet Union within the framework of NATO-Russia Council. Despite Russia's serious concern about the survival of NATO and its expansion towards East, it decided to cooperate with NATO in order to prevent development detrimental to its interests. Although Russia does not have Communist political and economic system, yet the important countries which comprise NATO are aware of the high potential which Russia has to become a world power and this has caused suspicion of NATO towards Russia. Despite these differences there are international issues and areas which NATO and Russia have common interests and these brings them together. These issues are terrorism, the expansion of weapons of mass destruction, Islamic fundamentalism, and fight against extremist nationalism and ethno-religious unrest. The above common issues have prepared ground for the formation of NATO-Russia Council. The aim of the present article is to examine the vicissitudes and fluctuations of NATO and Russia's relations. The article by a descriptive analytical method and by examining the document published by the official website of NATO and the viewpoint of the observers points out the commonality and differences between Russia and NATO. The finding of the study shows this reality that Russia and NATO should inevitably cooperate with each other if they want to face the international challenges and the new aspect of security threats.