An original and challenging examination of how to transform post-Sovietological study of Soviet and Russian foreign policy into a more integrated part of the Social Sciences and International Relations Theory. This book represents the first detailed and sustained synthesis international relations theory and Soviet/Russian foreign and security policy in academic literature.

Christer Pursiainen, Senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Helsinki, Finland. Received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Helsinki University.

Contents: The problem and the argument; How to evaluate theories?; The heritage of Soviet foreign policy studies; Russia and the international system; Russian foreign policy decision-making; The argument restated: beyond objectivism and relativism; Bibliography.