Russian Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era Reality, Illusion and Mythmaking

by Lo, Bobo

• ISBN13: 9780333775936
• ISBN10: 0333775937
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-06
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

In the first comprehensive treatment of its kind, Bobo Lo examines the course of Russian foreign policy in the decade following the Soviet collapse. Adopting a conceptual approach, he identifies the principal ideological and institutional factors that have influenced the thinking of decision-making behind the policies. Bobo Lo challenges many of the conventional assumptions that have dominated much of the preceding literature on Russian foreign policy.

Author Biography

Bobo Lo is Visiting Fellow, Carnegie Moscow Centre.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(11)
Searching for consensus	3	(2)
Conceptualizing Russian foreign policy	5	(4)
Methodological approach and chapter outline	9	(2)
Sources	11	(1)
The Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy	12	(28)
The search for identity -- Russia's place and role in the world	13	(10)
Challenges and opportunities -- Russia's view of the global environment	23	(3)
The impact of domestic factors on foreign policy-making	26	(4)
Institutional and individual actors in Russian foreign policy	30	(8)
Conclusion	38	(2)
Recasting the Ideological Debate	40	(26)
The liberal agenda	42	(6)
The imperial syndrome	48	(4)
`Great Power' ideology and the nationalist impulse	52	(5)
An `independent' foreign policy	57	(4)
Foreign policy retrenchment	61	(1)
Ideology and (non-)consensus	62	(4)
Illusion and Mythmaking	66	(32)
The Potemkinization of Russian foreign policy	67	(5)
The CIS -- fact and fiction	72	(14)
Multipolarity and multilateralism -- form versus substance	86	(10)
Conclusion	96	(2)
The Geopolitical Strain	98	(25)
The resurrection of geopolitics	100	(3)
Zero-sum mentality	103	(3)
Balance of power - theory and practice	106	(8)
Spheres of influence	114	(4)
Changing the paradigm: towards a `balanced' foreign policy?	118	(5)
A Question of Priorities - the Practice of Foreign Policy	123	(34)
Prioritizing in Russian foreign policy	125	(3)
The primacy of security issues	128	(16)
Promoting domestic political and economic interests	144	(7)
Sectionalization and the failure of policy	151	(3)
Pragmatism by default	154	(3)
Towards Normalization? Putin and Beyond	157	(20)
The determinants of Russian foreign policy under Putin	159	(4)
Towards de-ideologization?	163	(3)
Illusion and reality	166	(2)
Reinventing geopolitics	168	(3)
Foreign policy priorities in the Putin era	171	(3)
Conceptualizing Putin's foreign policy	174	(3)
Notes	177	(17)
Bibliography	194	(17)
Index	211