Russia and its Near Neighbours [Hardcover]

Russia has recently re-emerged as the dominant political, economic and military actor in former Soviet nations. Kanet?and Freire bring together a stellar cast of contributors to consider Russia's recent return as a major regional and international actor and its likely future policy toward its neighbours.Introduction: Russia and its Near Neighbours; M.R.Freire & R.E.Kanet PART I: DETERMINANTS OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY Russia's Vital and Exclusive National Interests in the Near Abroad; R.Laenen Domestic Influences on Russian Foreign Policy: Status, Interests and Ressentiment ; H.Smith Nationalist Grievance and Russian Foreign Policy? The Case of Georgia; L.March The August 2008 Russo-Georgian War: Which Side Went First?; J.B.Dunlop PART II: RUSSIA AND THE CIS Whose Near Abroad? Dilemmas in Russia's Declared Sphere of Privileged Interests; J.Russell Russia's European Security Treaty and the Kyrgyz Crisis; G.Herd Central Asia in Russian and US Foreign Policy: Between Continuity and 'Reset'; L.Sim?o Russia's Foreign Policy towards Central Asia; D.Digol PART III: ENERGY IN RUSSIAN-CIS RELATIONS Strategic Security and Russian Resource Diplomacy; M.Sussex Russian Resource Politics toward the CIS Countries under Medvedev; B.Nygren Russia's Energy Policies in Eurasia: Empowerment or Entrapment?; M.R.Freire Russian Energy Policy in the South Caucasus; L.Arakelyan & R.E.Kanet Conclusion; M.R.Freire & R.E.Kanet

'This is a well-informed and stimulating analysis of Russia's fraught relationship with its near neighbours (the former Soviet states), tracing not only the new geopolitical tensions but also some of the fundamental policy issues, notably the politics of energy, the domestic drivers of Russian foreign policy, and the various security dilemmas faced by individual states. The volume brings together an impressive collection of authors, each one an expert in their respective fields. Taken together, this is a state of the art analysis of developments in poslS‘