Power, Politics and Confrontation in Eurasia ― Foreign Policy in a Contested Region

Combining analyses from experts in international relations, foreign policy analysis, and domestic politics across the former USSR, this edited volume helps to unlock a set of intriguing puzzles relating to changing power dynamics in Eurasia. Today, Eurasia combines many of the most potent triggers for conflict: energy resources; weak states; terrorism; great power manoeuvring; social and ethnic fragmentation; terrorism; crime and corruption. What forces are shaping politics, foreign policy and security in the region? Who are the main 'players' and how are they pursuing their interests? In response to these questions, the contributors unpack the relationships between traditional (geopolitical, state-centric and institutional) and new (transnational and ideational) forms of political pressure, and identify the factors that are shaping the expectations and preferences of actors in contemporary Eurasia.

Roger E. Kanet is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, USA. His research interests include post-communist Europe, questions of European and global security, democratization and nationalism. His recent publications include Russian Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (2010) and, with Maria Raquel Freire, Russia and its Near Neighbours and Key Players and Regional Dynamics in Eurasia (2012 and 2010).

Matthew Sussex is Head of the Politics and International Relations programme and Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Tasmania, Australia. His areas of expertise include international security, Russian politics and foreign policy, strategic studies and international relations theory. His most recent publications have been in the areas of energy security, power relations in the Asia Pacific, security in the former Soviet space, and Australian strategic policy.