ABSTRACT
Since 1991, the states of the former Soviet Union (FSU) have embarked upon a grand endeavor of historic proportions: to resurrect, construct, import, and invent institutions of governance, laws and constitutions, economic systems, moral and religious belief systems, societal formations, security concepts and foreign policies, historical memory and national identity. Different states sometimes have divergent interests toward the newly independent states (NIS), and consequently the coordination of policy toward the newly independent states is never easy and not always possible. The interaction between the internal and external environment is ongoing but takes place on many more levels and with more intensity. The central argument is that the internal and external agency are of equal and vital importance in the transformation that is under way in the successor states of the Soviet Union. Serious reform cannot succeed without a commitment both by domestic governments and by societies that are open and permeable.
