An Analysis of Russian Foreign Policy During Yeltsins Era From A Neo-classical Realist Perspective
Özet
Relations between Russia and United States of America (USA) changed in the
post-Cold War period because Russian foreign policy came to an impasse by
colliding interests with the USA and the economic, political and social situation
of Russia at the time. After almost half a century of balance of power and
bipolarism, a pro-western approach was adopted by Russia. Such a radical
change raised new questions and realist theory explanations like human nature
or the international system were not adequate in explaining the changing
Russian policies towards the US. The subjects that will be taken as cases in this
thesis are NATO enlargement, to which Russia has always been inflexible apart
from a few times which were mandated by economic and political situation;
nuclear security and disarmament problems which were important to Russia in
terms of security and balance of power with both USA and former Soviet
republics. The Russian approach to these cases will be studied in relation to
NATO policies. This thesis argues that there are various factors affecting the
foreign policy and focuses on the analysis of these reasons from a theoretical
point of view of neo-classical realism. It takes into account not only one
variable, which is the international structure, but leader images, strategic
culture, state-society relations, domestic institutions.
