ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the post-Cold War security environment has profoundly influenced the internal struggle for power and that Russian foreign policy since 1989 has developed at a critical nexus between mounting internal cleavages and a rapidly evolving external environment. In the early 1930s, the USSR was perhaps as isolated from the outside world as any large power could be: Communications and travel were highly restricted, diplomatic contacts with the West were fraught with suspicion, and any contact with foreigners was probable grounds for charges of treason. Foreign threats tend to generate "internal rallying" within states, as regimes and their internal oppositions close ranks in order to deal with a perceived foreign enemy. The truly radical feature of the immediate post-Cold War era for Russia is the absence of a great-power threat that Russian leaders could evoke as a rationale for their policies and the exertion of their power internally.
