Pivot To Asia Russia's Foreign Policy Enters the 21st Century

Russia has historically been conditioned to exist within the European cultural tradition. However, its recent pivot to Asia poses a serious question to its cultural identity. How serious is this policy change for Russia and the world? Is the turn to Asia a long-term course or a mere repercussion of the current confrontation with the West? In this volume Alexander Lukin, a prominent scholar in international relations and Asian studies, seeks answers to these and many other questions related to Russia's foreign policy and its relations with Asia. This collection of Lukin's articles addresses a number of issues: Russia's diplomacy and the place of the Asian direction in it, Russian Far East and its potential, the role of Russia on the international scene. This broad-ranging and detailed study will be welcomed by both students and policy makers as the first academic work in English to have such a wide coverage of this topic.

INTRODUCTION: RUSSIA LOOKS EAST, PART 1: RUSSIA IN THE POST-BIPOLAR WORLD: FROM WESTERNISM TO PRAGMATISM, PART 2: RUSSIA AND CHINA: BEYOND THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP?, PART 3: RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA AND SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION, PART 4: RUSSIA AND THE TWO KOREAS