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 End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization

Politics & Social Sciences

Trenin, Dmitri V.

Politics & Government

Carnegie Endowment for Int'l Peace

Russia's Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia

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.

History

Malashenko, Alexey

Russia

Getting Russia Right

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.

Getting Russia Right (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Legal Theory & Systems

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 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.

Post-Imperium: A Eurasian Story