Routledge Handbook of Russian Foreign Policy
Edited by Andrei P. Tsygankov
London: Routledge, 2018, 456 pages, $50.42, ISBN: 9781315536934
Russia in the Changing International System
Edited by Emel Parlar Dal and Emre Erşen
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 243 pages, $53.49, ISBN: 9783030218324
The Foreign Policy of Russia: Changing Systems, Enduring Interests
By Robert H. Donaldson and Vidya Nadkarni
London: Routledge, 2019, 496 pages, $56.72, ISBN: 9780429449666
The Sources of Russian Foreign Policy after
the Cold War
Edited by Celeste A. Wallander
New York: Routledge, 2019, 256 pages, $56.72, ISBN: 9780429314650
Introduction
Russia has always held a significant place in global affairs. Ever since the imperial era, it has assumed a prominent role in world politics. Not only because of its material capacity, but also due to its ideology, identity, and influence, Russia has attracted pivotal attention from researchers. Throughout its rich history, its foreign policy has remained one of the most complicated, intriguing, and evolutionary topics to come under investigation. The phenomenon of Russian foreign policy is characterized by both significant and puzzling aspects. From an internal factors’ perspective, domestic politics, interest groups, political elites, institutions, the economy, and culture appear as important as well as very puzzling factors. They all require highly complex and comprehensive explanations. Furthermore, the external factors –foreign threats and security perceptions, polarity in world politics, Western countries, regional and global organizations– are as puzzling and significant as the internal ones. Scholars who aim to understand and explain the dynamics of Russian foreign policy ought to adopt a very broad scope and to some extent need to touch upon each of these aspects.
