The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization

As both an idea and a physical reality, Eurasia is dead, argues Trenin. It was destroyed by the definitive collapse of the Russian empire, by the rise of viable new states (many of which will merge into either Europe or Asia), and by new anti-imperial imperatives such as globalization. Because Eurasia offers no refuge for Russia in its quest for a new identity, Russians need to move on toward Europe. There Russia belongs, Trenin contends, for spiritual as well as practical reasons -- notwithstanding the difficulties ahead, including those created by Russia's internal passage. Trenin makes these points clear in an exceedingly sophisticated exploration of the interaction between space and identity in Russian history and the challenges facing Russia as it deals with its new neighbors on all three sides. This work is both the best and the most thought-provoking book on Russian foreign policy around, written by a Russian who is ahead of his time and the vast majority of his countrymen.