Russia and the European State-System

Course content

This post-graduate course seeks to explore and analyze the evolution of Russia s place in the European state-system, especially in the post-Cold war era. The first part of this course discusses various conceptual frameworks that are used to analyze 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 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.