Russia and the World - by L Cooper (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The collapse of communism and the disintegration of the USSR, created a new geopolitical reality, a new international environment, and a new set of international relations. This book is about Russia's foreign relations. It examines the factors that determine Russia's foreign policy, such as the economy and domestic politics. It devotes special attention to the so-called 'Russian idea' - a foreign policy determinant largely overlooked by western politicians and analysts. It attempts such an analysis by applying Russian rather than Western criteria because we are dealing here with a country with a unique culture and history.

Review Quotes

... this excellent book provides valuable background to the ongoing tragedy in the Russian North Caucasus. Slavic Review

About the Author

LEO COOPER is Senior Research Associate at the Contemporary Europe Research Centre and at the Russian and Euro-Asian Studies Centre, University of Melbourne. He was born in Warsaw, Poland and escaped to the Soviet Union after the German occupation of Warsaw in 1939. He emigrated to Australia in 1950. He graduated as D. Phil. at Monash University in 1987 and travelled extensively throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He visited the USSR again in 1989. He is the author of The Political Economy of Soviet Military Power, Soviet Reforms and Beyond, Power and Politics in the Soviet Union and Stakhanovites and The Story of a Worker in the Soviet Union 1939-1946.