Getting It Wrong

by Olcott, Martha Brill; Aslund, Anders; Garnett, Sherman W.; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• ISBN13: 9780870031717
• ISBN10: 0870031716
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for Intl Peace

Summary

On December 8, 1991, even before the Soviet Union was officially dissolved, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met in the Belovezh Forest outside Minsk to lay the groundwork for the post-Soviet era. There they signed what became known as the Belovezh Accords, creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Two weeks later, eight other Soviet republics joined the three founding members. In the void left by the collapse of the USSR, the CIS was to become a superstructure that would coordinate the foreign and security policies of the member states, develop a common economic space, and provide for an orderly transition from the Soviet Union to the post-Soviet phase.In reality, the CIS has failed. For Russia, the CIS has not served as a vehicle for exerting control over its neighbors. As an organization, the CIS has not succeeded at reintegrating the post-Soviet states. The desire of the new nations to assert themselves as independent entities has proven more powerful than their urge to replace the Soviet Union with a new system of collective government. Written by three of the West's leading experts on the former Soviet Union, this book offers a comprehensive assessment of how and why the CIS has failed.

Author Biography

Martha Brill Olcott and Anders Aslund are senior associates at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Sherman W. Garnett, a former Carnegie Endowment senior associate, is dean of James Madison College at Michigan State University

Table of Contents

Foreword	vi
Acknowledgments	vii
Map	xi
The Failure of the CIS	1	(36)
The Birth of the CIS	4	(7)
The Rocky Start of the CIS	11	(1)
No Trust of Russia	11	(5)
The Goals of the CIS	16	(6)
New Understandings of Sovereignty	22	(3)
The Late CIS: Holding on to Sovereignty	25	(3)
A New Kind of Union	28	(9)
CIS Economic Integration	37	(40)
The Formation of the CIS Economic System	38	(4)
The End of State Trade	42	(4)
The Establishment of New Currencies and a New Payments System	46	(6)
The Nature of Energy Trade within the CIS	52	(4)
Rising Protectionism Instead of Economic Integration	56	(2)
Development of Intra-CIS Trade, 1992--1997	58	(7)
Impact of the Russian Financial Crisis in 1998	65	(4)
Prospects for Economic Integration	69	(2)
Alternatives to Failure	71	(6)
The Failure to Establish an Integrated Security Structure	77	(32)
Russian Interests and Intentions for CIS Security Integration	79	(4)
National Armies Not Integration	83	(4)
Border Guards, Air Defense, and Peacekeeping	87	(7)
Why CIS Security Mechanisms Have Failure	94	(2)
Trying to Compensate Bilaterally for CIS Failure	96	(13)
The CIS and National Strategies for State Building	109	(48)
Kazakhstan: Integration and State Building	111	(9)
Kyrgyzstan: Attempting to Keep the Way to the World Open	120	(8)
Ukraine: Nation Building but Little Economic Reform	128	(8)
Georgia: Between Russia and the World	136	(7)
Common Features	143	(14)
Regional Alternatives to the CIS	157	(30)
The Central Asian Economic Community	158	(8)
The GUUAM Group	166	(4)
The Customs Union	170	(2)
Russian-belarusian Integration	172	(6)
Regional Efforts in Perspective	178	(9)
The CIS and the Outside World	187	(36)
Political Challenges	188	(8)
Economic Challenges	196	(8)
Security Challenges	204	(8)
Limited Cooperation	212	(11)
What Future Does the CIS Have?	223	(20)
The Legacy of the Past	224	(6)
Tasks the CIS Has Resolved	230	(2)
Tasks at Which the CIS Has Failed	232	(1)
Remaining Challenges	233	(4)
Looking Ahead	237	(6)
Appendix: Chronology of Key Events	243	(6)
Selected Bibliography	249	(6)
Index	255	(12)
Conference Participants	267	(2)
About the Authors	269	(2)
About the Carnegie Endowment	271