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By Madeleine Mezagopian*

Has Russia moved from its status of demise to recovery and headed towards re-assuming its global standing and role?

The world witnessed the end of the Cold War with the collapse of former Soviet Union during end of 1980s to be followed with the crowning of USA as the leading if not the only Super Power transforming the World Order from multi-polar system into a uni-polar one. However, USA's supremacy seems to be featured with failures rather than victories, i.e. Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, economic regression rather than progression and obviously short-lived global hegemony of two decades with the rebirth of Russia as a Super Power to be reckoned with.

Stephen F. Cohen (2013) perceived Washington slipping, if not plunging, into a new cold war with Moscow reviving support of clients in proxy wars in the developing countries with the proxy war in Syria representing a solid translation of this reality putting an end to Andrew Mack's claim (2007) that "the end of the Cold War meant that the two superpowers ceased supporting their erstwhile clients in proxy wars in the developing world."

Reconfiguration of World Order is linked to states upgrading and consolidating their diplomatic, military and economic strength and hence acquiring advanced global status with its accompanying advantages of building alliances and gaining areas of influence. The proxy war in Syria well mirrors this reconfiguration with the very recent developments pertinent Russian successful diplomacy in averting an imminent strike on Syria of destructive regional and global ramifications in the aftermath of Syria accepting Russian proposal to have its chemical weapons under international supervision and the U.S. and Russia agreeing on framework that, if fully implemented, could mean elimination of Syria's chemical weapons.

These developments together with Syria's decision to join the Chemical Weapons Ban Treaty if genuinely invested could well lead to reviving the notion of a Middle East free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), proposed to the United Nations by Syria under the rule of Bashar Al-Assad in 2003, developments which can well represent an unprecedented opportunity to test the intentions of USA and Russia together with allies in maintaining global peace and security.

However, the crucial question remains whether these developments represent an orphan translation of an equal partnership between USA and Russia in running the globe. Or a Russian-US sustainable equal partnership of directing the globe did emerge creating an opportunity for all states not least the Arab States to polish their diplomacy and realize historical gains foremost pertinent the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

* Madeleine Mezagopian is an academic researcher, adviser, and analyst in the field of conflict resolution, peace, and socioeconomic and political development. She contributed this article to Ammon News English.