Introduction

Abstract

In June 2013, David Cadier and Margot Light organized a conference at the London School of Economics on Russian foreign policy. The objective was to explore the factors shaping Russia’s foreign policy choices. Eminent specialists from Europe, Russia and North America were invited to present and discuss their thoughts on the matter. It turned out to be an outstanding event: the speakers gave interesting and challenging papers and the selected audience was largely composed of people who could equally well have been presenters. The level of the discussion was excellent, which encouraged the organizers to capitalize on this first round of reflections to propose a collective analytical publication that would include papers by other renowned experts who had not been able to attend the conference.