The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization by Dmitri s> Trenin (review)

Abstract

780 SEER, 8i, 4, 2003 peacetime and in war, are guaranteed by the constitution and by supporting social and economic legislation. The second point of note isjust how influentialNATO hasbeen in imposing change in the region. The generaltheoryisthat a state'scivil-militaryrelations are reflectiveof specificfunctionaland societal imperatives.The prospect of a place within the European security architecture, however, has meant that many of the countries studied in this volume are overlaying their own indigenous societal imperativeswith those of the West,and adoptingWestern, frequentlyAmerican, models of civil-militaryrelations. These states may be doing so for an immediate short-termgain -inclusion within NATO but these acts will also have long term repercussionsfor the way in which society reacts to and interactswith the militaryestablishment.It is surprisingto note just how many countries had adopted the Western approach without fully consideringthe long-term impact. Guarding the Guards makes an interesting and timely contribution to the literatureon civil-militaryrelationsand to that on democratic transition.The first in a three-volume series, it also establishesthe frameworkfor the more detailed examinations of defence reform, which are to follow. Either on its own, or aspart of the largerseries,it iswell worth obtaining. Department ofDefence Management & Security Analysis LAURA R. CLEARY Cranfield University [RMCSJ Trenin, Dmitri. TheEndof Eurasia.Russiaon theBorder Between Geopolitics and Globalization. Carnegie EndowmentforInternationalPeace, Washington, D.C., and Moscow, 2002. xi+ 35I pp. Maps. Notes. Index. $24.95 (paperback). READERS impatient for a quick sense of the general orientation of this importantbook on Russia'sglobalposition willfindsome serioushints already on the backcover. There, along with encomia from such notablesasZbigniew Brzezinski and Sir Rodric Braithwaite (a former British ambassador to Russia),we learn that the author is the deputy directorof the Moscow branch of the American Carnegie foundation. On this basis, we would be justified in concluding that Trenin is a Westernizer,and that his perspectivewill diverge correspondingly from the mainstream of Russian thinking today about its domestic and global future, and in the event we are not disappointed. In pronouncing the 'end of Eurasia',the authorhas two essentialpoints to make. Firstof all, the exceptionalistvision of Russia as a special civilizationalrealm, separate from the rest of world and operating according to rules of its own, must finallybe discarded once and for all. Russia is not Eurasia,languishing in an intermediary zone between Europe and Asia: it is rather a European country in the fullest sense, which simply happens to possess considerable territoryin Asia. The second point is anticipatedin the book's subtitle'Russia between geopolitics and civilization'. Trenin argues that Russia's traditional 'geopolitical' preoccupation with territory and boundaries, reflected in the twinned historical obsessions of defence and expansion, have been rendered superfluous by the twenty-first-centuryrealities of globalization. National power can no longer be measuredin squarekilometersof politicaljurisdiction, REVIEWS 78I and national welfare can no longer be securedthrough boundary defense. All of this points to Trenin's essential message, namely that the break-up of the USSR and the loss of unchallenged political control over the vast spaces of Eurasiawas not a catastrophebut rathera positive development which puts a Russian Federationthat is modernized and weltoffen in a position to 'join' the restof the world in the twenty-firstcentury. This much being said, Trenin chooses nonetheless to structure his book along traditionalgeopoliticallines.Afteran extensiveconsiderationofRussia's imperiallegacy, he discussesthe currentsituationgeographically,in the sense that he considers Russia's predicament in regard to its three geographical 'facades' to the West, South, and East. With Europe Russia enjoys a natural affinity, and thus this particular frontier is the most stable and least problematic of all. Trenin considersthe problemsassociatedwith the different categories of stateswhich confront Russia to the West:the successorstates of the former Soviet Union, the East European members of the former communist block, and the nations of WesternEurope. The principal internal dynamic across the entire region is the movement toward economic and political integration, and the principle challenge for Russia is the prospect of NATO expansion. Trenin discounts the latter issue as a substantialproblem, arguingthat a positive responsefromRussiatowardEU expansion isfarmore important. This indeed in the basic message of the book. Borrowingfrom the post-reunificationdiscourse of Westbindung in Germany, Trenin suggeststhat what Russia needs most of all is Europa-Bindung, that is...