Evolution of the Russian Leadership’s Foreign Policy Thinking

Abstract

This chapter analyses the evolution of the Russian leadership’s foreign policy thinking from 1992 to 2007. Its purpose is to ascertain how the Russian leadership perceived the nature of international relations, how it thought about Russia’s identity, international status, and role, and how it believed it could best defend the country’s national interests. In analysing the Russian leadership’s foreign policy thinking, the chapter seeks to trace continuities and changes over time. The analysis will lead to propositions about the content of collective ideas, whose impact will be tested in the following three case studies. I argue that the dominant collective ideas that shaped the Russian leadership’s foreign policy thinking changed three times in this period: from liberal ideas (1992–93/94) to geopolitical Realism (1993/94–2000) to pragmatic geoeconomic Realism (2000–4) to cultural geostrategic Realism (2004–7).