Russian foreign policy in the post-Soviet era

"In this work, Bobo Lo examines Russian foreign policy in the decade following the Soviet collapse. He shows how Moscow's approach to international relations arose naturally out of a fractured, disoriented society at odds with itself and the post-Cold War environment. In the absence of consensus over a larger national purpose, the interplay between competing elite interests emerged as the decisive influence shaping foreign policy. The Yeltsin regime, adrift in an unfamiliar world, sought refuge in a virtual 'reality' based on the illusion of Russia's continuing superpower status. However, the rapid pace of developments at home and abroad soon exposed the limitations of such mythmaking. With no one able or willing to articulate a viable alternative vision, Russian foreign policy was reduced to a lowest common denominator conservatism in which institutional anarchy and narrow self-interest paralysed effective decision-making."--BOOK JACKET.