Abstract
Russia has experienced two power transitions over the twentieth century: the rise as Soviet nuclear superpower and later the Soviet collapse. The decline has brought an illiberal, dangerously revisionist pursuit of Great Power status. At the same time, granting Russia the Soviet permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council also ensured it a key platform for pursuing Great Power Management for good or bad. Russia’s strategic culture of regime security and ‘active measures’ includes a penchant for bilateral dialogue with the US, pursued via intelligence bosses. At the same time, post-Soviet Russia embraced the ultraliberal, solidarist Council of Europe paving the way for some domestic human rights improvements. Altogether, Russia is a case of partly disruptive revisionism, and partly constructive Great Power Management.
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Skak, M. (2022). Russia: Power Transition, Revisionism and Great Power Management. In: Knudsen, T.B., Navari, C. (eds) Power Transition in the Anarchical Society. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97711-5_5
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