| Sumario: | The writer analyzes Russia's potential to reclaim its global power status. Taking into consideration Ray Cline's key indicators of a country's weight in the international arena—economic strength and technological advancement, demographic vitality and ethnic cohesion, military expenditures and power, and political factors—the writer observes that aside from nuclear arsenal, size of territory, and production of raw materials, Russia possesses none of the assets that would enable it to challenge the U.S. The writer asserts that despite the Kremlin's attempts to reassert its military might and regain its global power status, Russia's problems of economic underdevelopment, population decline, and loss of ideological appeal make both the achievement of that goal and the start of a new Cold War highly unlikely.
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