Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Internal Factors in Russian Foreign Policy

Internal Factors in Russian Foreign Policy

Neil Malcolm et al.
Reviewed by By Robert Legvold
November/December 1997
Print Email
Login or Register to leave a comment.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.
Neil Malcolm et al.
Oxford University Press
1996
356 pp.
$72.00

Four of Great Britain's ablest Russian specialists have combined to produce the single best book available on contemporary Russian foreign policy. This is much more than a collection of essays. It is a genuinely synthetic work, with a carefully conceived division of labor and linked chapters. These deal with the contested ideas and orientations underlying Russian foreign policy, the agencies and processes producing policy, the broader political arena within which politicians and special interests struggle to influence policy, and the particular role played by the military. The research is thorough, the authors experienced and talented, and the result a balanced, comprehensive exploration of the tension among contending schools of thought, institutions, and players. Although focused on 1994 and 1995, it is a measure of the book's quality that for the most part the analysis remains sound.

Related

Essay, Sep/Oct 2001
Russia's Unformed Foreign Policy
Robert Legvold

Although Russia has projected itself more forcefully on the world stage since the beginning of the Putin era, its foreign policy still lacks any sort of grand strategic vision. Russian leaders continue to squabble over issues from NATO expansion to the world economy. But they are particularly concerned about Russia's identity, especially with regard to the post-Soviet states. If the Bush administration fails to devise a coherent policy of its own toward its former rival, it may face serious problems down the road.

Read
Essay, Special 1988
The Revolution in Soviet Foreign Policy
Robert Legvold

Gorbachev's new thinking is based on the belief that military power is not the only way to national security, and that there is a link between national and mutual security. The revolution in foreign policy thinking has been most profound at the level of policy concepts, and has been based on a realization that the real threat to the USSR comes from the weakening of the economy due to excessive military spending. Notes how the ideas underpinning the foreign policy revolution have existed for the last decade, and how the evidence suggests that the change is genuine.

Read