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Although the score of countries comprising Russia's near abroad (the former non-Russian Soviet republics) and far abroad (the former non-Russian Warsaw Pact states) are behaving with variably increasing independence in their domestic and foreign policies, Russia continues to regard them as remaining within the same core-periphery sphere of influence formerly exerted by the Soviet Union within the same geographic space. Russia misinterprets bids by these countries to adopt liberalizing structural reforms and to join Euro-Atlantic organizations as foreign-inspired and inimical to Russia's security. Whether Russia can learn to recognize that such bids are in fact natural developments of national self-interest will determine whether healthy and mutually beneficial bilateral relations can develop between Russia and the states of her near and far abroad in the 21st century.
No previous study of the dynamics of post-Soviet assertive sovereignty has as broad a geographic scope as Eurasia Rising, which considers the whole of Post-Soviet Space: DT Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine DT_ Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania DT Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia DT Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan DT Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia
List of contents
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Sovereignty from Within
Chapter 2: The Vanguard Central European States
Chapter 3: The Vanguard Former Soviet Republics
Chapter 4: The Late-Bloomer Republics
Chapter 5: Russia and Eurasia - Where To?
Appendix I: Post-Communist Parliamentary Election Turnout Results in Central Europe and the Baltic Countries
Appendix II: Economic Freedom of the World (EFW), Fraser Institute Ratings
Appendix III: Reporters without Borders Index of Press Freedom
Appendix IV: Gazprom Fees for Gas to Europe and Central Asia
About the author
Georgeta Pourchot is Adjunct Professor of Foreign Policy and International Relations and Director of the online MA program in Political Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she directed the Euro-Atlantic Security Project. She was a founding member of the Romanian Green Party and served in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. She is the author of Learning from Successful Cooperation in the Expanding European Space, Euro-Atlantic Integration for Ukraine and Future Security Roles of NATO and the EU: Central and Eastern European Contributions.
