A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY

This research aims to analyze Russian natural
resource-finance sector s effect on the formation of
Russian foreign policy since the collapse of the
Soviet Union and until early 2000s. The main
question it tries to answer is why it has been
successful in determining the main contours of a
relatively peaceful foreign policy in a crises-laden
Russia which have had so many reasons to switch to
an aggressive behavior. In this regard, the military-
industrial complex is the other crucial economic
sector to be referred to frequently. Given the
overwhelming nature of the international structure
that Russia finds itself in, and given the general
change in the worldview of the Russians, it becomes
clear that the resource-finance sector on the one
hand and the military-industrial complex on the
other are much more than mere economic sectors,
being organic material cores of alternative national
and international identities. Such a holistic
approach helps to rely on the explanatory power of
the legitimacy factor and go beyond different group
preferences in accounting for Russian foreign policy.

Autorentext

Elnur Soltanov is professor of political science at Truman State University, Missouri. Professor Soltanov has worked as a reseracher at the Russian-Ukrainian Desk of Ankara/Turkey based think-thank, ASAM, from 2000 to 2003. He has taught at Texas Tech University, Texas, and Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania between 2003 and 2008.

Klappentext

This research aims to analyze Russian natural resource-finance sector's effect on the formation of Russian foreign policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union and until early 2000s. The main question it tries to answer is why it has been successful in determining the main contours of a relatively peaceful foreign policy in a crises-laden Russia which have had so many reasons to switch to an aggressive behavior. In this regard, the military-industrial complex is the other crucial economic sector to be referred to frequently. Given the overwhelming nature of the international structure that Russia finds itself in, and given the general change in the worldview of the Russians, it becomes clear that the resource-finance sector on the one hand and the military-industrial complex on the other are much more than mere economic sectors, being organic material cores of alternative national and international identities. Such a holistic approach helps to rely on the explanatory power of the legitimacy factor and go beyond different group preferences in accounting for Russian foreign policy.