ABSTRACT
Robert Yin proposes three strategies that will be helpful in using tools and make manipulations to produce the needed analytic result: relying on theoretical propositions that led to your case study; defining and testing alternative explanations; and developing a descriptive framework for organizing the case study. This chapter deals with defining and testing alternative explanations using techniques such as regime theory analysis. It maintains that from the construction of socialism within the Soviet Union to the creation of the Eurasian Union in post-Soviet space, the Soviet and Russian leaders acted in the best interests of the ruling class. The chapter examines Keohane's contractualist or functional theory of international regimes, which was labeled "neoliberal institutionalism" and asserts that international institutions play a vital role in world politics. It argues that the Russian rationale behind the Eurasian integration was always political rather than economic.
