The Foreign Policy of Russia

This text traces the lineage and development of Russian foreign policy with the insight that comes from a historical perspective. Now fully updated, the seventh edition incorporates new coverage of issues including relations with the major powers and with other post-communist states, with an emphasis on tensions with the United States and engagement with Ukraine, Crimea, and Syria. International security issues including arms control, sanctions, and intervention continue to grow in importance. Domestic and regional issues related to natural resource politics, human rights, Islamism, and terrorism also persist. Chronologically organized chapters highlight the continuities of Russia?s behavior in the world since tsarist times as well as the major sources of change and variability over the revolutionary period, wartime alliances and Cold War, détente, the Soviet collapse, and the first post-communist decades. The basic framework used in the book is a modified realism that stresses the balance of power and the importance of national interest, and it identifies several factors (both internal and external) that condition Russian policy. The interpretations are original and based on a mix of primary and secondary sources.

New to the Seventh Edition

• A new concluding chapter: Russia Openly Confronts the "Collective West".


• Thoroughly updated coverage of Russia?s bilateral relations with the United States and countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.


• Expanded discussion of Moscow?s efforts to control the flow of information at home and abroad as it employs Russia?s "soft power" assets.


• Russian-American relations, especially with respect to continuing interference in the U.S. elections and to U.S. foreign policy concerns in the Far East, Iran, and Syria.


• The full unfolding of the Ukraine crisis, culminating in Russia?s invasion of Ukraine.


• Vladimir Putin?s escalated claims of the superiority of Russian cultural values and more openly imperialistic ambitions.


• Expanded coverage of Russia?s relations with China and India, now in a separate chapter on this "strategic triangle."


• Greater attention to the impact of climate change on Russian foreign policy, including its heightened activity in the Arctic.


• Significant new developments in the Middle East including the collapse of the nuclear deal with Iran, the expanded Russian role in the Syrian civil war, and the growing complexity in Russian-Turkish relations.

Praise for The Foreign Policy of Russia

This textbook will provide undergraduate students with an excellent foundation in understanding general tendencies in Russia?s external relationships over time as well as a coherent framework of analysis for exploring specific issues in greater depth through more specialized articles, book chapters, and monographs. In short, it is an ideal text for a survey course on Russian foreign policy or even for a more general course on international relations or comparative foreign policy that includes intensive attention to one or more of the great powers.

Allen C. Lynch, University of Virginia

The Foreign Policy of Russia?is a sober and accessible analysis for both students and researchers. This a rare opportunity to get a full review of the origins, incentives, and challenges of Putin?s controversial foreign policy.

Andrei Kolesnikov,?Carnegie Moscow Center

This indispensable text offers students of politics and international relations, policy-makers, and the public a systematic, accessible, and even-handed discussion of Russian policy-making concerning relations with other states. Rooted by necessity in historical context, the book provides incisive, nuanced, and compelling analysis of changes and continuities in how Russian leaders perceive what is in their national interest and how they interpret and react to the actions of leaders elsewhere. Donaldson and Nadkarni offer a wise, timely contribution to debates about statecraft, soft power, pragmatism, East-West relations, and the role of cyber-crime.

Mary Buckley,?Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge