ABSTRACT
Contemporary Russia faces a three-fold challenge: to find an appropriate paradigm of ‘the international’ in external relations (the foreign integration question); to devise a model of ‘the political’ that can sustain domestic aspirations for autonomy and sovereignty (the governance dilemma); and to combine these two elements into a coherent order that can sustain engagement with other states and international society while allowing a coherent version of national identity to develop. To date all three aspects remain works in progress and the subject of intense debate by domestic elites and foreign observers. Russia historically has had a problematical relationship with the hegemonic international system of particular eras, and this continues to this day (Malia 2000; Billington 2004). In part this is derived from structural factors, notably Russia's typically tangential position in the dominant system. With very rare exceptions this relationship has been at the minimum strained, degenerating for long periods into outright hostility. During the Cold War the tension was between the Soviet Union's advocacy of an alternative world order and the existing international system. However, even with the end of the ideological and geopolitical struggle between two blocs representing different paths to modernity, there remains a tension between Russia's appreciation of itself and the operation of international politics. This is no longer based so much on Russia's attempts to create a different type of world system, but on the inability of Russia and the other powers to find an appropriate relationship that could integrate not only geopolitical concerns but also representations of each other's identity. 1
