Russia's Foreign Policy

Change and Continuity

Andrei P. Tsygankov

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9798765154847
• Edition: 7
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This clear and comprehensive text explores the past thirty years of Soviet/Russian international relations, comparing foreign policy formation under Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Medvedev, and Putin. Challenging conventional views of Moscow's foreign policy, Andrei Tsygankov shows that definitions of national interest depend on visions of national identity and is rooted both in history and domestic politics. Yet the author also highlights the role of the external environment in affecting the balance of power among competing domestic groups. Drawing on both Russian and Western sources, Tsygankov shows how Moscow's policies have shifted under different leaders' visions of Russia's national interests. He gives an overview of the ideas and pressures that motivated Russian foreign policy in six different periods: the Gorbachev era of the late 1980s, the liberal "Westernizers" era under Kozyrev in the early 1990s, the relatively hardline statist policy under Primakov, the more pragmatic course of limited cooperation under Putin and then Medvedev, and the assertive policy Putin has implemented since his return to power, most importantly in his invasion of Ukraine which began in 2022.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Note on the Transliteration
• Chronology of Key Foreign Policy Events, 1979–2024
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Understanding Change and Continuity in Russia’s Foreign Policy
• Chapter 2: The Cold War Crisis and Soviet New Thinking, 1986–1991
• Chapter 3: The Post-Soviet Decline and Attempts at Cooperation, 1991–2004
• Chapter 4: Recovery and Assertiveness, 2005–2011
• Chapter 5: Civilizational Turn and New Assertiveness, 2012–2020
• Chapter 6: The Russia–West Conflict, the War in Ukraine, and a Post-Western World, 2021–
• Chapter 7: Conclusions and Lessons
• Further Reading
• Essay Questions
• Topics for Discussion or Simulation
• Index