Abstract
With a reference to Russia’s size and location, its unique history and culture, and its massive economic and military resources Russia claims a prominent role in the current world order. The foreign policy strategy which Russia’s post-communist leadership developed from this worldview, has generally been pragmatic and re-active. More recently, partly due to developments beyond Russia’s influence and partially as a result of political and economic changes in Russia itself, the country’s foreign policies have become more self-confident, more assertive and more offensive, initially especially in its own environment but later also beyond its sphere of influence. Russia is a revisionist power, but with a strongly conservative streak. Multipolarity is Russia’s major foreign policy ambition, one that is based on competition and cooperation among sovereign great powers. Russia demands the right to be included, but it also wants to stand apart. Russia is strongly in favour of multilateralism, but preferably a multilateralism for the few, Russia included.
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Notes
- 1.
The BRICs notion was coined by Jim O’Neill (2001), Goldman Sachs. It refered to what he saw as the four major emerging market economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The idea of BRICs became increasingly politicized, which was also the major reason why in 2010 the Republic of South Africa ‘joined’ this loose association of states, which from then on was known as BRICS.
- 2.
At the time of writing reports about Russia’s interference in the presidential elections in the United States are still too indeterminate to draw conclusions on the extent of involvement of the Russian leadership or on the strategic nature of the intervention.
- 3.
The inspiration to compare the Eurasian Union with the European Economic Community comes from Blockmans, Kostanyan and Vorobiov 2012, who also give the figures on Germany. The figures for the countries of the Eurasian Union come from different web sources, including the World Bank.
Further Reading
Russian foreign policy is the topic of a dazzling number of academic and policy-related studies. The interested reader may begin with the series of brilliant essays in Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century and the Shadow of the Past, edited by Robert Legvold (2007). The book offers fascinating insights into the longer-term, historical continuities of Russian foreign policy. Robert Donaldson, Joseph Nogee and Vidya Nadkarni (2014, fifth edition) present a well-structured, balanced and chronological overview of Russia’s international policies in The Foreign Policy of Russia. Changing Systems, Enduring Interests. The best study of Putin’s foreign policies is Russia and the New World Disorder by Bobo Lo (2015). The book is topical, thorough and admirably objective.
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Gerrits, A. (2020). Russia in the Changing Global Order: Multipolarity, Multilateralism, and Sovereignty. In: Hosli, M.O., Selleslaghs, J. (eds) The Changing Global Order. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21603-0_5
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