Russia's Foreign Security Policy in the 21st Century: Putin, Medvedev and Beyond

by De Haas; Marcel

• ISBN13: 9780415477307
• ISBN10: 0415477301
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines Russia's security policy under the presidencies of Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev and beyond.Under Putin and Medvedev, Russia has developed from a neglected regional power into a self-declared resurgent superpower. Russia's background in the former Soviet Union as well as close ties with the upcoming new powers of China and India served as spring-boards towards regaining an influential status in the world. Simultaneously, Moscow developed an assertive policy towards the West and unwilling neighbours, culminating in August 2008 in an armed conflict with Georgia. Reviewing this decade of Russian international security policy, this book analyses major security documents, military reforms and Moscow's policy actions to provide an assessment of the future of Russian security policy.This book will be of much interest to students of Russian politics and foreign policy, European politics and Security Studies and IR in general.Marcel de Haas is Senior Fellow on military doctrine, strategy and security policy of the Netherlands, NATO, EU, Russia and the CIS at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. 

Table of Contents

List of maps	p. xiii
List of tables	p. xiv
Preface	p. xv
Abbreviations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Current policy and traditional principles of Russian security thinking	p. 3
Characteristics of security policy under Yeltsin	p. 4
Research set-up	p. 7
Structure of Putin's foreign security policy (2000-2008)	p. 15
Security policy documents	p. 15
Military thought and status of the Russian armed forces	p. 35
Implementation of Putin's foreign security policy	p. 40
Russia's approach towards other international actors: friends	p. 40
Russia's approach towards other international actors: foes	p. 52
Emphasizing the nuclear deterrent	p. 61
Suspending the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty	p. 64
Opposing the missile defence shield	p. 65
Applying energy as an instrument of power	p. 66
Conclusions on Putin's international security policy in practice	p. 77
Structure of Medvedev's foreign security policy (2008-2009)	p. 83
Security policy documents	p. 83
Military thought and status of the Russian armed forces	p. 89
Comparison of Medvedev's security thinking with that of Putin	p. 97
Implementation of Medvedev's foreign security policy	p. 110
Russia's approach towards other international actors: friends	p. 110
Russia's approach towards other international actors: foes	p. 117
Nuclear deterrence	p. 122
CFE Treaty	p. 124
US missile defence shield	p. 124
Energy as an instrument of power	p. 125
A new European security architecture	p. 130
The Russian-Georgian armed conflict of August 2008	p. 135
Historical development of Georgia and the separatist regions	p. 135
Involvement of external actors in the South Caucasus	p. 138
The Russian-Georgian conflict (7-12 August 2008)	p. 145
Assessment of Russia's foreign security policy (200O-2009) and outlook beyond Medvedev	p. 156
Conclusions on the external security policy of Putin and Medvedev	p. 156
The West and Russia: how to move on?	p. 161
Current security status of Russia: a SWOT analysis	p. 163
Scenarios for the future Russia and consequences for the West	p. 174
Notes	p. 181
Bibliography	p. 184
Index	p. 204
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