Explaining Foreign Policy: International Diplomacy and the Russo-Georgian War. By Mouritzen Hans, Wivel Anders. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2012. 223 pp., $25.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-58826-835-8). Russia vs. the EU: The Competition for Influence in Post-Soviet Space. By Tolstrup Jakob. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2014. 295 pp., $75.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-935049-93-7). Strategic Cooperation: Overcoming the Barriers of Global Anarchy. By Michael O. Slobodchikoff Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013. 147 pp., $53.14 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0739178805). Recent prominent events involving Russia, such as the Russian-Georgian war, the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Ukrainian crisis, and the secession of Crimea from Ukraine, clearly illustrate that Russia is repositioning itself in the international arena by forcefully demonstrating that the post-Soviet space is and will continue to be a focus of its foreign policy. A growing number of studies have rightly registered the above trend of post-Soviet Russia's resurgence in international politics under Putin's rule2 yet not reached a consensus over how to best explain it. The lack of commitment to a particular approach in studying Russia's foreign policy is understandable given the previous failure of both International Relations and Soviet studies to predict the radical changes in the late 1980s.3 Nevertheless, the issue of “getting post-Soviet Russia right” is of high importance because, given its geopolitical position, demographic makeup, and power resources, an assertive Russia will have a significant impact on world politics. In this regard, the three books reviewed here provide new data and valuable insights. Although each addresses a different topic and makes its own contribution to the field of its focus, the books deliver an important overarching message about how to understand Russia's external behavior in general. Intentionally or not, the books bring to light the relevance of a geopolitical perspective. Explicitly, as in the case of the book Explaining Foreign Policy , or more implicitly and even unintentionally, as with the other two books, geopolitics emerges as a powerful explanatory paradigm that helps better understand the intricacies of Eurasian international politics. Geopolitical motives appear to govern foreign policymaking in not only Russia but also the European Union and the United States that are often willing to put democracy promotion aside for the sake of balancing against Russia. Both democracies and …