Review: Russian Foreign Policy since 1990
| Author | Ronald C. Keith |
| Published date | 01 March 1996 |
| Date | 01 March 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070209605100122 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
178
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
price
from
the
West
for
letting the
German
Democratic Republic
go.)
Moreover,
perhaps
because
of
his work
with
Robert
Keohane,
he
is
more
impressed
than
before
with
the
tenacity
and
effectiveness
of
inter-
national
regimes,
of
which
he
now
considers
the
EC
an
advanced and
especially
interesting
case.
Like
Keohane
as
well,
he
has
little
time
for
structural
realism:
'Balance,
Concert,
Anarchy,
or
None
of
the
Above'
is
a
devastating
refutation
of
the
Waltz-Mearsheimer thesis
on the
secu-
rity
of
Europe
and
the
post-Cold
War
world.
This collection
confirms
Hoffmann's
place
on
the
liberal
wing
of
realism. He
retains
his
emphasis on the
durability
of
states,
the com-
pellingness
of
national
interests,
the
adaptability
of
governments, and
the
limitations
of
idealist
projects
to
transform
the
state-system.
This
realist
core
is
softened,
however,
by
a
comparativist's
sensitivity
to the
diversity
and
contingency
of
the
domestic
bases
of
foreign
policy
(Hoff-
mann
is,
after
all,
a
leading
student
of
French
politics).
His
later
work,
moreover,
stresses
the
independent
influence
of
ideas
and
institutions
on
world politics.
And,
aware
though
he
is
of
how
both
domestic
and
international
forces can
impinge
on
self-absorbed
European
projects,
Hoffmann
nevertheless detects
a
cumulative quality
in
Europe's post-
war
pacification
and
integration.
The
mythological
reference
in
his
title
is
thus
somewhat misleading:
unlike
Sisyphus'
boulder,
Europe's
can
stall
or
slip,
but
never
rolls
all
the
way
back
to
the bottom
of
the
hill.
Charles
Pentland/Queen's
University
RUSSIAN
FOREIGN
POLICY
SINCE
1990
Edited
by
Peter
Shearman
Boulder
co:
Westview
Press,
1995,
xii,
324pp,
US$
55
.oo
cloth,
US$1
9.9 5
paper
This
book
bills
itself
as
providing
'the
most
comprehensive
coverage
of
contemporary
Russian
foreign
policy
currently
available
in
a
single
vol-
ume.'
I
would
agree.
Shearman's
introductory
survey
of
Soviet
foreign
policy
assesses
the
different
analytical
opportunities
presented
in
Western
interpretation
To continue reading
Request your trial