Russia as a Global Power: Contending Views from Russia

April 22, 2013

The collapse of the Soviet Union generated a wide range of contending views in Russia on the nation’s place in the world and its relationship with the West. In more recent years, however, Russian foreign policy can be largely characterized as one shaped by a pragmatic approach to balance of power politics and economic development. This outlook and its policy manifestations, along with dissenting views, were the theme of a recent conference on “Russia as a Global Power,” organized by the Rising Powers Initiative at the Elliot School of International Affairs.

Russian worldviews since 1991 can be categorized into roughly three schools of thought, argue Andrew Kuchins and Igor Zevelev in Worldviews of Aspiring Powers. The “Pro‐Western Liberals” stress a European identity and favor closer integration with Europe through collective security and economic liberalization, but they have fallen out of favor since their brief rise in the early 1990s. The “Nationalists” see Russia as a distinct civilization apart from the West, and advocate the use of military power to secure Russia as an independent center of power in Eurasia. In contrast to the regional perspective of the Nationalists, the “Great Power Balancers” believe that Russia should have global aspirations in a multipolar world where international status is attained through both economic and military strength. The three Russian experts featured at the conference roughly reflected this spectrum of worldviews in their discussions on a wide range of topics including Syria’s ongoing conflict, the creation of a Eurasian Customs Union, and Russian relations with China and India.

This Policy Brief is based on the discussions at the conference on “Russia as a Global Power: Contending Views from Russia,” co‐organized by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Institute for European, Russia, and Eurasian Studies on March 18, 2013 in Washington, DC. The event featured the following Russian panelists:

  • Vladislav Inozemtsev, Centre for Post‐Industrial Studies
  • Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia in Global Affairs & Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
  • Andranik Migranyan, Institute for Democracy and Cooperation

Read the rest of the Policy Brief here (PDF)

By Amy Hsieh, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, The George Washington University