Syllabus
Russian identityRussian vision of changing international orderTrends and schools of thought in Soviet and Russian foreign policyRussia and the West (1 and 2)Russia, the West, and the countries in betweenRussia and ChinaRussia and post-Soviet spaceRussia as a member of international community of statesResurection of Russian great power politics?
Annotation
Russian foreign policy attracted significant amount of political and analytical attention in recent years. The tensions which appeared and intensified in Russia-West relations recently sparked boom in production of Russia-related papers, reports, analyses and articles.
While this body of analyses contains brilliant and valuablepieces the overall tendency leads towards simplification and –more importantly –stereotypization of the mutual relations. Russian foreign policy is often analysed from distorted and simplified perspectives of New Cold War, irreversibly undemocratic nature of Russia or omnipotent Putin.
As a result it is increasingly important to understand sources and developments in Russian geopolitical and foreign policy thinking in order to interpret its behaviour without relying on old-fashioned stereotypes, and to understand the risks, challenges and viable strategies in mutual relations.The main aim of this course is to provide basis for better understanding of current Russian foreign policy. Students will gain basic understanding to drivers of Russian foreign policy based on history, perceptions of Self and Others.
Students will learn about the developments of Russian foreign policy in major geopolitical regions of the world. And finally students will discuss the current developments in Russian foreign policy within the abovementioned framework.