Commonwealth and Independence in Post-Soviet Eurasia (1998) examines the various attempts to create new forms of integration by the new states of Eurasia. The contributors to this volume analyse in detail how the national elites in the independent states conceived their regional policies. It looks in particular at the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States, feared by many of the newly-independent nations as being the Soviet Union Mark II.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 rapidly and irrevocably transformed Central Asia's political landscape. This region of five sovereign states with a population of some fifty million people quickly became a major focus of interest and influence for competing poles of power. The eminent contributors to this volume offer a four-part analysis of the region's new importance in world affairs. Rajan Menon examines the place of Central Asia in a global perspective. Eugene Rumer considers the perspective of the post-9/11 United States. Dimitri Trenin looks at the region from the standpoint of traditional hegemon Russia. Huasheng Zhao provides the view from economic superpower-in-the-making China.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 rapidly and irrevocably transformed Central Asia's political landscape. This region of five sovereign states with a population of some fifty million people quickly became a major focus of interest and influence for competing poles of power. The eminent contributors to this volume offer a four-part analysis of the region's new importance in world affairs. Rajan Menon examines the place of Central Asia in a global perspective, while Dimitri Trenin looks at it from the standpoint of traditional hegemon Russia. Huasheng Zhao provides the view from economic superpower-in-the-making China, and Eugene Rumer represents the position of the post-9/11 United States.

Ten years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the issue of Russia's international identity still remains largely unresolved. In this thought-provoking book, Dmitri Trenin argues that Russia must join the West by becoming integrated with the European Union and by building an alliance with the United States. He delineates the political, economic, demographic, religious, and strategic challenges that Russia faces in relation to neighboring countries --in Eastern Europe, along the Baltic Sea, around the Caspian Sea, in Central Asia, and in the Far East. Trenin suggests that Russia's time as the region's dominant leader is over, and that Russia and Eurasia will no longer share the same geopolitical objectives.

The two papers grouped together here were delivered at the Strategic Studies Institute's annual strategy conference for 2007. As the theme of the conference was global security challenges to the United States and proceeded on a region by region basis, these papers were delivered during the session devoted to security challenges issuing from what is now called Eurasia, i.e., to a large degree the former Soviet Union. The authors illustrate the degree to which great power rivalry in Eurasia has become a major security issue and source of growing Russo-American tensions. Whereas Dr. R. Craig Nation lays out some of the fundamental macro-strategic issues of this rivalry and U.S. goals in Eurasia, as well as the consequences of Russian resistance to Western and American pressures, Dr. Dmitri Trenin emphasizes the growing intensity of Russian threat perceptions.

The war in Georgia. Tensions with Ukraine and other nearby countries. Moscow's bid to consolidate its "zone of privileged interests" among the Commonwealth of Independent States. These volatile situations all raise questions about the nature of and prospects for Russia's relations with its neighbors.

In this book, Carnegie scholar Dmitri Trenin argues that Moscow needs to drop the notion of creating an exclusive power center out of the post-Soviet space. Like other former European empires, Russia will need to reinvent itself as a global player and as part of a wider community.

Trenin's vision of Russia is an open Euro-Pacific country that is savvy in its use of soft power and fully reconciled with its former borderlands and dependents. He acknowledges that this scenario may sound too optimistic but warns that the alternative is not a new version of the historic empire but instead is the ultimate marginalization of Russia.

In the early 1990s, Russia seemed on the brink of fully shedding its authoritarian and communist past. It made significant progress through engaging the world community as an emerging market democracy, a returning friend and neighbor to Europe and the West, and a strategic partner of the United States. The ensuing fifteen years of Russian history have witnessed several booms, such as the buoyancy provided by high oil revenues, and busts that resulted in retrenchment and centralization of power. What is the real Russia? Is the nation going in the wrong direction and becoming a threat-in-waiting, or is it moving along, and even forward, in a familiar three-steps-forward and two-steps-back pattern? In Getting Russia Right, Dmitri Trenin sheds new light on our understanding of contemporary Russia, providing Western audiences with an insider's explanation of how the country has arrived at its current position and how the United States and Europe can deal with it more productively. Trenin looks beyond Russia's famous leaders to the economic and cultural spaces outside the Kremlin where promising changes are taking place. Russia is probably not going to join the West, but it is on a path toward becoming Western; capitalist even if not democratic; European in terms of civilization, rather than as part of the EU; and gradually more Western than pro-U.S. Insightful and optimistic, Getting Russia Right offers policymakers, students, and stakeholders in the U.S.-Russia relationship an understanding of what Russia is --and is not. Russia will matter in the foreseeable future, and Trenin's innovative and objective analysis provides an understanding that is crucial to rebuilding relationships among the world's key players.

The conflict in Chechnya, going through its low- and high-intensity phases, has been doggedly accompanying Russia's development. In the last decade, the Chechen war was widely covered, both in Russia and in the West. While most books look at the causes of the war, explain its zigzag course, and condemn the brutalities and crimes associated with it, this book is different. Its focus lies beyond the Caucasus battlefield. In Russia's Restless Frontier, Dmitri Trenin and Aleksei Malashenko examine the implications of the war with Chechnya for Russia's post-Soviet evolution. Considering Chechnya's impact on Russia's military, domestic politics, foreign policy, and ethnic relations, the authors contend that the Chechen factor must be addressed before Russia can continue its development.

In Russia, a group of leading Russian intellectuals and social scientists join with top researchers from around the world to examine the social, political, and economic transformation in Russia. This timely and important book of original essays makes clear that neither politics nor economics alone holds the key to Russia's future, presenting critical perspectives on challenges facing Russia, both in its domestic policies and in its international relations. It also explores how global order--or disorder--may develop over the coming decades.

Contributors include: Oleg Atkov, Timothy J. Colton, Georgi Derluguian, Mikhail K. Gorshkov, Leonid Grigoriev, Nur Kirabaev, Andrew C. Kuchins, Bobo Lo, Roderic Lyne, Vladimir Popov, Alexander Rahr, Richard Sakwa, Guzel Ulumbekova, Vladimir I. Yakunin, Rustem Zhangozha.

What if the major global and regional powers of today s world came into closer alignment to build a stronger international community and shared approaches to twenty-first century threats and challenges? The Stanley Foundation posed that question to thirty-three top foreign policy analysts in Powers and Principles: International Leadership in a Shrinking World. Contributing writers were asked to describe the paths that nine powerful nations, a regional union of twenty-seven states, and a multinational corporation could take as constructive stakeholders in a strengthened rules-based international order. Each chapter is an assessment of what is politically possible (and impossible) with a description of the associated pressures and reference to the country s geostrategic position, economy, society, history, and political system and culture. To provide a perspective from the inside and counterweight, each essay is accompanied by a critical reaction by a prominent analyst commentator from the given country. Powers and Principles is aimed at both reflective practitioners of policy and policy-relevant scholars."

What if the major global and regional powers of todayOs world came into closer alignment to build a stronger international community and shared approaches to twenty-first century threats and challenges? The Stanley Foundation posed that question to thirty-three top foreign policy analysts in Powers and Principles: International Leadership in a Shrinking World. Contributing writers were asked to describe the paths that nine powerful nations, a regional union of twenty-seven states, and a multinational corporation could take as constructive stakeholders in a strengthened rules-based international order. Each chapter is an assessment of what is politically possible (and impossible)_with a description of the associated pressures and reference to the countryOs geostrategic position, economy, society, history, and political system and culture. To provide a perspective from the inside and counterweight, each essay is accompanied by a critical reaction by a prominent analyst commentator from the given country. Powers and Principles is aimed at both reflective practitioners of policy and policy-relevant scholars.