ABSTRACT
Few countries have faced such an array of challenges in the area of security governance as post-Soviet Russia. Over the last two decades, Russia has encountered a series of events and trends that – while ultimately re-establishing it as a key player in global and regional affairs – have in many respects shaped quite different perceptions of the global security environment and international politics among its governing elite and society. These include the disintegration of the Soviet Union and subsequent fragmentation of the post-Soviet space, the enlargements of NATO and the European Union into Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, NATO’s intervention in the FYR over Kosovo, the Chechen wars, and radical changes to the internal political, economic and social foundations of Russia itself. The result is that – while Russia has played a substantive and, in many respects, responsible role in many international issues – and indeed seeks a greater voice in decision-making – it has also challenged important aspects of Western policies over European security governance, creating tension between a ‘sovereign’ Russia pursuing its national interests and a modernizing Russia seeking to play a constructive part in an interdependent international order. As Mark Webber argued at the end of the first post-Cold War decade, this situation has produced ‘an enduring, albeit increasingly problematic accommodation between Russia and the West’ (Webber 2000: 33).
