Russia and the European State-System

Course content

This post-graduate course seeks to explore and analyse the evolution of Russia´s place in the European state-system, especially in the post-Cold war era. The first part of the course discusses various conceptual frameworks that are used to analyse the dilemmas in Russia´s process of Westernization and the existing conceptions of Europe among the Russian intelligentsia. The next part deals mainly with the historical evolution of Russia´s orientation towards the European state-system during both the Tsarist and Soviet periods. Afterwards, the course will discuss Russia´s place in the emerging institutional architecture of Europe in the post-Cold War era. In this part, the emphasis will be on Russia´s relations with CSCE/OSCE, NATO and the European Union. In the penultimate section, the course will examine Russia´s relations with the Western European countries, the Central and East European countries, the Balkans and the Baltics. The concluding part will discuss the change and continuity in Russia´s place in the European state-system.