National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective. By Rawi Abdelal. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. 240p. $39.95

Abstract

This is an unabashedly theoretical book motivated by a recent empirical puzzle. To wit, why did certain post-Soviet states strongly reorient their trade and monetary relations away from Russia after 1991, while others either clearly chose not to do so or engaged in heated yet ultimately indecisive political debates about the “proper” direction for their foreign economic policies? Rawi Abdelal provides a provocative answer to this question: “What societies want depends upon who they think they are” (p. 1). His book effectively challenges dominant realist and liberal theories of international political economy, and promotes a new “Nationalist” theoretical perspective to better explain the foreign economic policies of postimperial states.