This book examines Russia s external security policy under the presidencies of Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev and beyond.
The Russian Federation has developed from a neglected regional power into a self-declared resurgent superpower. Russia s background in the former Soviet Union as well as close ties with the upcoming new powers of China and India served as spring-boards towards regaining an influential status in the world. Simultaneously, Moscow developed an assertive policy towards the West and unwilling neighbours, culminating in August 2008 in an armed conflict with Georgia. Reviewing this decade of Russian international security policy, this work analyses security documents, military reforms and policy actions towards friends and foes, such as the USA and NATO, to provide an assessment of the future security stance of the Kremlin.

This book will be of much interest to students of Russian politics and foreign policy, European politics and Security Studies and IR in general.

This book examines Russia's external security policy under the presidencies of Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev and beyond.
The Russian Federation has developed from a neglected regional power into a self-declared resurgent superpower. Russia's background in the former Soviet Union as well as close ties with the upcoming new powers of China and India served as spring-boards towards regaining an influential status in the world. Simultaneously, Moscow developed an assertive policy towards the West and unwilling neighbours, culminating in August 2008 in an armed conflict with Georgia. Reviewing this decade of Russian international security policy, this work analyses security documents, military reforms and policy actions towards friends and foes, such as the USA and NATO, to provide an assessment of the future security stance of the Kremlin.

This book will be of much interest to students of Russian politics and foreign policy, European politics and Security Studies and IR in general.

This book analyses the security policy of the Russian Federation, internally as well as externally, on all levels of strategy. It describes military-political decision making from Moscow's grand strategy to the use of a single fighter aircraft in Chechnya. In this analysis, Russia's air forces are used as a model for all services of the armed forces. The Chechen conflicts and NATO's security policy have been dominant factors in the development of Russia's security policy during the period 1992-2002. The use of air power in the Chechen conflicts is used here as a case study for testing political and military-strategic objectives. With regard to NATO's security policy, this study shows that the eastward enlargement of this alliance, as well as its use of force in Bosnia and Kosovo, have caused an increase in anti-Western tendencies in Russian security thinking. Russia will continue to manoeuvre between imperial thinking about power and influence and accepting its post-Cold War staus and subsequent co-operation with the west. This dualism, however, forms an obstacle to building modern armed forces, and air forces in particular.