Analysis of Russian Federation's security understanding from Neorealist Perspective

The reason for the writing of this thesis is to examine the aggressive foreign policy that the Russian Federation has put into practice since the year 2000, in the context of neorealist theory, which considers the state as the main actor and takes into account the structure of the international system. In this context, while the ideological debates taking place in the post-Soviet period were mentioned, military, foreign policy and national security documents, which have been the road maps of Russian foreign policy since that time, were also presented. In addition, the aggressive foreign policy of the Russian Federation was evaluated with three case examples in the Putin period. In sum, in this thesis, it is argued that the Russian Foreign policy in the 2000s has been theorized and implemented within the framework of offensive realism aiming at maximizing power for survival. By doing this, at a time when foreign policies are increasingly globalized, it is shown that the realist theory of international relations still retains its validity.