Led by the ubiquitous Vladimir Putin, Russia has strongly reasserted itself on the international stage. In the worldview of Putin and the Kremlin, the inevitable decline of the West and rise of the rest provides an opportunity for Russia to fulfill its mission as an independent center of global power. What are the origins of this increasingly aggressive stance? What are the geopolitical ramifications? And what will be the likely outcomes? In this timely and accessible work, former diplomat and renowned Russia analyst Bobo Lo examines the interplay between contemporary Russian foreign policy and a global environment that has rarely been more fluid and uncertain. Russia and the New World Disorder delves into Russian policy and geopolitics via three questions: How do Russias domestic politics and external operating environment influence the Kremlins foreign policy?; How have policymakers in Moscow responded to that environment, and with what ramifications?; What are the prospects for change, continuity, or regression in Russian foreign policy over the next decade and beyond?
Bobo Lo is an associate fellow with the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House (UK) and is former deputy head of mission in Australias Moscow Embassy. He is the author of Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing, and the New Geopolitics (Brookings/Chatham House, 2008).
Once again, Bobo Lo has written an illuminating book on Russias foreign policy. With elegance and precision, Lo has explained why Russia, as a declining power, is still so important for international stability, crisis management, and global issues. A must-read for now, and certainly a classic book for the next decade." - Dr. Thomas Gomart, Director of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Paris
"Bobo Lo offers a trenchant analysis of the challenges and choices that confront Russia in todays rapidly changing global environment. He asks whether Russia is capable of jettisoning its imperial mindset and becoming a modern nation-state capable of interacting more effectively both with its neighbors and with the wider world. His answer is sobering - and sometimes surprising." -Angela Stent, Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES), Georgetown University, and author of The Limits of Partnership: US-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century.
"Bobo Los new book is elegantly written and has a masterful grasp of the pressures and temptations that have acted on Putin in foreign and security policy. He puts us all in his debt." -Robert Service, Fellow of the British Academy, and Emeritus Fellow, St Antonys College, University of Oxford
"[Lo] adopts a commendably calm approach to a topic which attracts plenty of polemic. At every stage he outlines Russian views of the world fairly, and highlights Western mistakes and misapprehensions, before proceeding to paint the full picture in precise and sometimes scathing terms....Mr Los book is the best attempt yet to explain Russias unhappy relationship with the rest of the world. It does not make comforting reading. Nor should it." - The Economist
"It is an insightful take from one of the Wests leading Russia scholars on the different tracks Russias foreign policy can take, and the results of each. As Russia continues to position itself at the center of world affairs - from annexing Crimea to joining the Syrian civil war - policymakers should look at the world from the Kremlins point of view and assess Russian strategic thinking from the inside out. This book does exactly that." - New Framework
