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Post-Imperium: A Eurasian Story
The war in Georgia. Tensions with Ukraine and other nearby countries. Moscow's bid to consolidate its "zone of privileged interests" among the Commonwealth of Independent States. These volatile situations all raise questions about the nature of and prospects for Russia's relations with its neighbors. In this book, Carnegie scholar Dmitri Trenin argues that Moscow needs to drop the notion of creating an exclusive power center out of the post-Soviet space. Like other former European empires, Russia will need to reinvent itself as a global player and as part of a wider community. Trenin's vision of Russia is an open Euro-Pacific country that is savvy in its use of soft power and fully reconciled with its former borderlands and dependents. He acknowledges that this scenario may sound too optimistic but warns that the alternative is not a new version of the historic empire but instead is the ultimate marginalization of Russia.
279 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2010
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About the author
Dmitri Trenin
35 books12 followersDmitri Trenin is a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Deputy Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 18, 2017
Um ótimo review da situação russa !
April 14, 2015
Post-Imperium is both a sociological work and a very important study in International Relations, uncovering the ramifications and effects of perhaps the most consequential even of the past 30 years, the break up of the USSR.
The early chapters offer an explanation as to why the breakup occurred, but Trenin does not dwell too long on this and seeks to explore the consequences, and the attitudes toward this event, and Russia's relationship with it's former Soviet constituent parts.
Post-Imperium is both a study of mindset as much as it is a study of foreign policy. It is essentially about how Russia now sees itself in the world, and how it's neighbours see themselves and their relationship with their former imperial master.
The USSR breakup led to some bloody conflicts in Nagorno Kharabakh, Chechnya, and perhaps the bloodiest in Tajikistan, with Moldova and Kharabakh remaining as frozen conflicts. Additionally it resulted in over 25 million displaced ethnic Russians in former Soviet Republics, a number that has dwindled ever since, and continues to dwindle.
Russia is essentially adjusting to it's status in the world as a Post Imperial power. Russia retains several important tools, it's septer and orb (the nuclear arsenal and the permanent seat at the Security Council) it's huge supply of oil and gas, but is lacking in soft power.
Trenin identifies Russia's cultural greatness, in it's arts and literary contributions, as being perceived as foreign texts, increasingly neglected in the former Soviet Republics, which have in turn invented their own nationalist mythologies in a new form of self assertiveness, perhaps most passively in Kazakhstan, and most aggressively in Turkmenistan. However, it is the national mythology and self assertiveness engineered in Ukraine that has caused the most unease in the post Soviet sphere.
An important chapter is that on the economy, an area not unknown by the wider world as suffering acute pain in the immediate years after the USSR breakup. It is primarily through energy that Russia was able to reassert itself, and it remains it's strongest currency in it's relationship with it's post Soviet neighbours.
An interesting chapter is the study of demographics. The acute population decline, known as the Russian Cross, is examined, along with the rather strange way Eastern Orthodoxy, despite being resurgent, is fragmenting along nationalist lines, with a separate Ukrainian Orthodoxy emerging, and the possibility of such a separate Belarussian entity to yet emerge.
The only part of this study that is lacking is perhaps more attention or detail could have been given to the conflict in Tajikistan, and perhaps Kharabakh.
The post Soviet world is not adequately understood amongst Western foreign policy circles, although it most certainly should be. Dmitri Trenin's book is a broad, yet detailed, study of the Post Soviet Eurasian world, and is essential reading for any students of international relations, especially those focusing on Russia or Eurasia.
The early chapters offer an explanation as to why the breakup occurred, but Trenin does not dwell too long on this and seeks to explore the consequences, and the attitudes toward this event, and Russia's relationship with it's former Soviet constituent parts.
Post-Imperium is both a study of mindset as much as it is a study of foreign policy. It is essentially about how Russia now sees itself in the world, and how it's neighbours see themselves and their relationship with their former imperial master.
The USSR breakup led to some bloody conflicts in Nagorno Kharabakh, Chechnya, and perhaps the bloodiest in Tajikistan, with Moldova and Kharabakh remaining as frozen conflicts. Additionally it resulted in over 25 million displaced ethnic Russians in former Soviet Republics, a number that has dwindled ever since, and continues to dwindle.
Russia is essentially adjusting to it's status in the world as a Post Imperial power. Russia retains several important tools, it's septer and orb (the nuclear arsenal and the permanent seat at the Security Council) it's huge supply of oil and gas, but is lacking in soft power.
Trenin identifies Russia's cultural greatness, in it's arts and literary contributions, as being perceived as foreign texts, increasingly neglected in the former Soviet Republics, which have in turn invented their own nationalist mythologies in a new form of self assertiveness, perhaps most passively in Kazakhstan, and most aggressively in Turkmenistan. However, it is the national mythology and self assertiveness engineered in Ukraine that has caused the most unease in the post Soviet sphere.
An important chapter is that on the economy, an area not unknown by the wider world as suffering acute pain in the immediate years after the USSR breakup. It is primarily through energy that Russia was able to reassert itself, and it remains it's strongest currency in it's relationship with it's post Soviet neighbours.
An interesting chapter is the study of demographics. The acute population decline, known as the Russian Cross, is examined, along with the rather strange way Eastern Orthodoxy, despite being resurgent, is fragmenting along nationalist lines, with a separate Ukrainian Orthodoxy emerging, and the possibility of such a separate Belarussian entity to yet emerge.
The only part of this study that is lacking is perhaps more attention or detail could have been given to the conflict in Tajikistan, and perhaps Kharabakh.
The post Soviet world is not adequately understood amongst Western foreign policy circles, although it most certainly should be. Dmitri Trenin's book is a broad, yet detailed, study of the Post Soviet Eurasian world, and is essential reading for any students of international relations, especially those focusing on Russia or Eurasia.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews