› › Misunderstanding Russia

Misunderstanding Russia

Author : Magda Leichtova

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 179 pages

File Size : 27,31 MB

Release : 2016-07-22

Category : Political Science

ISBN : 1317095448

Get eBook

Book Description

Well argued and balanced, Leichtova provides an alternative and more constructive understanding of what drives Russian foreign policy. The book is based on the concepts of constructivism and orientalism in international relations to analyse the policies of the Russian Federation. This book highlights that Russian foreign policy is a complex phenomenon constructed from internal as well as external developments, perceptions and expectations. At the same time, it also highlights that Western states are the most significant Other in construction of the Russian foreign policy and even Russian identity and, at the same time, actively create an 'image of Russia' in international politics which is widely based on their own Western assumptions about the country. The author introduces the reader to an alternate portrayal of relations between Russia and the West which all analysts should take into consideration before drawing conclusions.



Misunderstanding Russia

Author : Magda Leichtova

Publisher :

Page : 179 pages

File Size : 32,68 MB

Release : 2014

Category : Russie

ISBN : 9781306923774

Get eBook

Book Description

Well argued and balanced, Leichtova provides an alternative and more constructive understanding of what drives Russian foreign policy. The book is based on the concepts of constructivism and orientalism in international relations to analyse the policies of the Russian Federation. This book highlights that Russian foreign policy is a complex phenomenon constructed from internal as well as external developments, perceptions and expectations. At the same time, it also highlights that Western states are the most significant Other in construction of the Russian foreign policy and even Russian identity and, at the same time, actively create an 'image of Russia' in international politics which is widely based on their own Western assumptions about the country. The author introduces the reader to an alternate portrayal of relations between Russia and the West which all analysts should take into consideration before drawing conclusions.





A 'new Cold War'?

Author : Andrew Monaghan

Publisher :

Page : 14 pages

File Size : 14,25 MB

Release : 2015

Category : Europe

ISBN : 9781784130596

Get eBook

Book Description

The war in Ukraine suggests a new era of competition between the West and Russia. It has (again) revealed both fundamental differences in how European security is understood, and increasing friction in values. Together, these problems suggest an emergent 'clash of Europes' that pits the West's relatively liberal vision for the region against a more conservative 'Russian Europe'. A 'new Cold War' narrative, increasingly popular, interprets this competition as a resumption of the Cold War. Many Western political figures and observers have asserted that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is trying to turn back the clock, even to rebuild the USSR, and therefore that the experience of the Cold War could offer useful lessons for politicians today. The 'new Cold War' debate traps Western thinking about Russia in the 20th century. It reflects, and encourages, a dangerous tendency on the part of politicians and military strategists to prepare for past wars. It also offers a misleading sense of familiarity and predictability about Russia that does not take into account either the different international situation today or Russian adaptability to changing geopolitics.





Russian Political War

Author : Mark Galeotti

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 126 pages

File Size : 15,2 MB

Release : 2019-02-18

Category : History

ISBN : 0429812094

Get eBook

Book Description

This book cuts through the misunderstandings about Russia’s geopolitical challenge to the West, presenting this not as ‘hybrid war’ but ‘political war.’ Russia seeks to antagonise: its diplomats castigate Western ‘Russophobia’ and cultivate populist sentiment abroad, while its media sells Russia as a peaceable neighbour and a bastion of traditional social values. Its spies snoop, and even kill, and its hackers and trolls mount a 24/7 onslaught on Western systems and discourses. This is generally characterised as ‘hybrid war,’ but this is a misunderstanding of Russian strategy. Drawing extensively not just on their writings but also decades of interactions with Russian military, security and government officials, this study demonstrates that the Kremlin has updated traditional forms of non-military ‘political war’ for the modern world. Aware that the West, if united, is vastly richer and stronger, Putin is seeking to divide, and distract, in the hope it will either accept his claim to Russia’s great-power status – or at least be unable to prevent him. In the process, Russia may be foreshadowing how the very nature of war is changing: political war may be the future. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, war studies, Russian politics and security studies.



Author :

Publisher :

Page : 535 pages

File Size : 10,15 MB

Release :

Category :

ISBN : 0544716248

Get eBook

Book Description



Neither Foe Nor Friend

Author : Katrin Ullmann

Publisher : Tectum - Der Wissenschaftsverlag

Page : 118 pages

File Size : 32,33 MB

Release : 2005

Category : Social Science

ISBN :

Get eBook

Book Description

For almost half a century, the Iron Curtain had separated Americans and Russians by barriers of misunderstanding, suspicion and alienation. The accession of Mikhail Gorbachev to power in the mid-1980s signalled the beginning of a revolutionary stage in American-Soviet relations. In the course of the following two decades Americans and Russians would interact to an extent never anticipated and come to call each other partners, or even friends. The word friendship, however, is often used superficially. This book provides a more profound answer to the question of how, from the American perspective, the image of, and the relationship to, Russia have changed since the former adversary "opened its doors" to the West. Ullmann not only reveals how the American public's attitudes toward Russia or the scope of people-to-people contacts have changed, she also analyses to what extent Americans have been able to learn about Russia in the mass media and to what extent they have been interested in studying Russian culture and language.



The Dark Double

Author : Andrei P. Tsygankov

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 208 pages

File Size : 35,89 MB

Release : 2019-03-01

Category : Political Science

ISBN : 0190919353

Get eBook

Book Description

Although many observers argue that US-Russia relations are a simple reflection of elites' political and economic preferences in both countries, these preferences tend to arise from pre-existing belief systems that are deeply rooted in the public and accentuated by mass media. In Dark Double, Andrei P. Tsygankov focuses on the driving power of values and media, in addition to political and economic interests, in structuring US-Russia relations. By analyzing mainstream US newspapers and other media sources, Tsygankov identifies five media narratives involving Russia since the Cold War's end and studies them through a framework of three inter-related factors: historic and cultural differences between the two countries, inter-state competition, and polarizing domestic politics. He shows how Americans' negative views toward Russia draw from a deep wellspring of suspicion and are further enhanced by a biased media that regularly exploits such negativity, Russia's centralization of power and anti-American attitudes. Given the intensity of our current impasse with Russia, Dark Double represents an important intervention that forces us to think about the sources of conflict in a new way.



The Russian Understanding of War

Author : Oscar Jonsson

Publisher : Georgetown University Press

Page : 200 pages

File Size : 16,70 MB

Release : 2019-11-01

Category : Political Science

ISBN : 1626167346

Get eBook

Book Description

This book analyzes the evolution of Russian military thought and how Russia's current thinking about war is reflected in recent crises. While other books describe current Russian practice, Oscar Jonsson provides the long view to show how Russian military strategic thinking has developed from the Bolshevik Revolution to the present. He closely examines Russian primary sources including security doctrines and the writings and statements of Russian military theorists and political elites. What Jonsson reveals is that Russia's conception of the very nature of war is now changing, as Russian elites see information warfare and political subversion as the most important ways to conduct contemporary war. Since information warfare and political subversion are below the traditional threshold of armed violence, this has blurred the boundaries between war and peace. Jonsson also finds that Russian leaders have, particularly since 2011/12, considered themselves to be at war with the United States and its allies, albeit with non-violent means. This book provides much needed context and analysis to be able to understand recent Russian interventions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, how to deter Russia on the eastern borders of NATO, and how the West must also learn to avoid inadvertent escalation.