At his speech at the Center for the National Interest in April 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump said, “Some say the Russians won’t be reasonable. I intend to find out.” A fresh approach to the Syria question may provide the opportunity to test his assumption.

Nikolas K. Gvosdev, a contributing editor at the National Interest, is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The views expressed here are his own personal assessments.

This paper will appear in the Center for the National Interest’s forthcoming publication, “A New Direction in U.S.-Russia Relations? America’s Challenges and Opportunities in Dealing with Russia.”

Image: Vladimir Putin meets meeting with Defense Ministry officials. Kremlin.ru