Assessing the US-Russian Approach to Terrorism; Emphasizing the Middle East

 For the past two decades, the main focus of US foreign policy has shifted to terrorism and fundamentalism. Although Russia's foreign policy has been more involved in its peripheral affairs, one of Russia's concerns has been the growing risk of extremism in those areas.  The main question is: what are the most important aspects of the similarity and difference between US and Russian foreign policy strategies in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism? It seems the structural realist approach based on the elimination of threats, the provision of relative benefits from the global similarity, containment of terrorism and the use of smart power by the United States in comparison with limited military operations and regional pragmatism by Russia are the most important aspects of strategic differences. The political and security of the United States and Russia is opposed to terrorism and fundamentalism. Accordingly, it is imperative that both countries consider emerging non-governmental actors a security threat.