Key Players and Regional Dynamics in Eurasia: The Return of the 'Great Game'

The contributors to this edited volume explore Russia's re-emergence as a major actor in Central Asia and the Caucasus. This re-emergence is limited by the involvement and influence of external state and non-state actors such as China, the US, India, foreign energy companies, and international organisations, including the CIS and CSTO, NATO, the OSCE and the SCO. The primary focus is on Russia as the main state actor in the relationships and on the possibilities and limits of its initiatives in the face of the processes of multi-level and multi-actor cooperation and competition in the region. The central issues of regionalism-as a constructed reality in Eurasia-and great power rivalry, with the dynamics that underlie this dialectic relationship, are analysed, making this study a contribution to the examination of Russian interests in and policy towards the region and the competition that it now faces with other countries and non-state actors.

Maria Raquel Freire is Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) and Assistant Professor of International Relations at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research interests focus on foreign policy, Russia and the former Soviet space, and peace studies. She has published widely on these topics.
Roger E. Kanet is Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami, US. His recent publications include Resurgent Russia and the West: The European Union, NATO and Beyond (2009); The United States and Europe in a Changing World (2009); with E. A. Kolodziej, From Superpower to Besieged Global Power: Restoring World Order after the Bush Doctrine (2008); Russia: Re-Emerging Great Power (2007); and Identities, Nations and Politics after Communism (2007).