Reflections on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Foreign and Military Policy: Exploring Motivations, Factors and Explanations
Reflections on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Foreign and Military Policy: Exploring Motivations, Factors and Explanations

Summary/Abstract: To better understand Putin, one can scan Russian political history and explore key, enduring debates between Slavophiles and Westernizers on whether Russia should ‘look East and inward’ or ‘look West and outwards’. Are insular, nationalist Slavophile goals again displacing nascent, fragile Westernizer’s aspirations of liberalization and greater openness to Europe? Is an authoritarian, bureaucratic state evolving into a dynamic, ambitious and ruthless semi-totalitarian regime? Relatedly, are we witnessing renewed imperialist Russian ambitions seeking to revise the geo-political landscape? Accordingly, does the West need to return to Cold War-like containment theory to constrain Russian ambitions?

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