"The loss of Russia as a reliable US partner represents a massive setback in the fight against real global baddies, foremost among them Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), which Cohen said would be the "number one threat if the US political-media establishment had not conjured up the preceding ones."
But the nuclear issue is also of key importance here, according to the scholar.
"The high-alert/hair-trigger status of American and Russian nuclear weapons is an accident waiting to happen," which requires Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to negotiate "an end to that perilous status," he wrote.
Cohen wraps up his article with a short explanation as to why Russia does not feature on his list of US threats.
"Russia... represents no threat to the United States at all (apart from a nuclear accident or miscalculation), except those Washington and NATO have themselves created. Meanwhile, the "expanding alliance between Russia and China,"symptomatic of "unwise" US policy, is a "separate subject.""