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'New Cold War' or twenty years' crisis? Russia and international politics

Sakwa, Richard (2008) 'New Cold War' or twenty years' crisis? Russia and international politics. International Affairs, 84 (2). pp. 241-267. ISSN 0020-5850. (doi:10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00702.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:15640)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00702.x

Abstract

President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy can be characterized as a 'new realism', repudiating some of the exaggerated ambitions of Yevgeny Primakov's tenure as foreign minister in the late 1990s while asserting Russia's distinctive identity in world politics. Rather than acting as a classic 'balancing' power prescribed by classic realist theory as the response to the hegemonic power of a single state, Russia under Putin tended to 'bandwagon' and the country has been a vigorous 'joiner'. Putin insisted that Russia retains its 'autonomy' in international politics while moving away from earlier ideas that Russia could constitute the kernel of an alternative power bloc. However, the opportunity to integrate Russia into the hegemonic international order may have been missed because of what is seen in Moscow as the resolute hostility of groups in the West who continue to pursue Cold War aims of isolating and containing Russia. The Cold War was transcended in an asymmetrical manner, and this has given rise to four major failures: political, strategic, intellectual and cultural. The world faces the danger of the onset of a new era of great power bloc politics, thus restoring a Cold War structure to the international system. With none of the major strategic issues facing the international community at the end of the Cold War yet resolved, we may be facing a new twenty years' crisis.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00702.x
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Maureen Cook
Date Deposited: 10 Mar 2009 12:58 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:53 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/15640 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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