ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the early attempts to develop a grand strategy for the newly reborn Russian state. It begins with a discussion of the different foreign policy visions advanced by the main political factions within the country and identifies the disputed strategic culture of the early Yeltsin period. The chapter then provides an overview of a series of policies which had implications for Russia's status in the international system and its relationship with the United States. These include: the wars for Yugoslav succession, Russian minorities in the Baltics, the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, the Kurile Islands, and Russian policy toward the former USSR. In each of these cases, Russian policy attempted to conform their policies to those of the West. In the case of Yugoslavia, Russia followed the West's lead in supporting international sanctions against Serbia, despite historic and ethnic ties between Russians and Serbs.
