ABSTRACT
After some years of experience of Russian foreign policy studies, the basic problem of the field has not been thoroughly discussed, nor has it become less relevant: how to move from a pragmatic and partially isolated area-oriented field to a more integrated part of the discipline of International Relations? It was commonly observed that Sovietology was a rather conservative, old-fashioned, and 'non-scientific' genre of study, and often behind the general developments in social sciences. The chapter approaches the problems of theoretical pluralism from a different perspective. It surveys and evaluates the development of Soviet and Russian foreign policy studies as a theoretical enterprise from its very early stages to the present day. The chapter concludes with a metatheoretical discussion and proposes some alternative ways of dealing with the question of incommensurable explanations. It deals with Russian foreign policy decision-making, a research subject that arises from both Sovietological and International Relations traditions.
