Relations betweenAmericaand Russia havebeenof interest toanalystsof international relations since long time ago. This relationship has experienced different periods of cooperation and tensions in different historical sections and by having a lot of ups and downs had a great impact on other countries’ relationships and international system. Afterthe collapse ofthe Soviet Union duringthe 1990s, there was less tension between the two countries but in the interval 2000-2008 the neo-conservatives came to power in America, so their relations became gradually tense after a short bilateral cooperation, and the tension reached its peak, during crisis in South Ossetia, in 2008. We can consider the cause of this increasing tension from different perspectives, including people and the celebrities role, and look at the problem from the perspective which adopts decision making approach in which the government is equivalent to official decision makers of the government. We can emphasize on the role of structure of international system in the increasing of the tension according to neo-realistic perspective or go within the country with an organizational approach and highlight the role of institutions, organizations, and forces in the foreign policy and increasing tension in bilateral relations.Various studies have considered the increasing tension in relations between America and Russia in this period from foresaid perspectives but fewer researches have considered the role of stream of thought in this increasing tension. We note that in this study, we sought to investigate: why and how have neo-conservatives as a stream of thought caused the increasing of the tension in relations between America and Russia? In order to answer this question we will try to answer three questions: what are the ups and downs of the relationship between America and Russia? What factors were effective at these ups and downs? And finally, how can the role of neo-conservatives be analyzed in these ups and downs?

The focus of this study is that the streams of thoughts in America and Russia have played a key role in ups and downs of the two countries relations more than individuals, institutions and structures from 2000 to 2008, so that they haveoccasionally influenced even individuals and institutions and ignored the structures.The neo-conservative thought that took political power in the years 2000 to 2008 in America has played very important role in increasing tension in relations between America and Russia in this period.