An analysis of Russian foreign policy during Yeltsin's era from a neo-classical realist perspective

Relations between Russia and United States of America (USA) changed in the post-Cold War period because Russian foreign policy came to an impasse by colliding interests with the USA and the economic, political and social situation of Russia at the time. After almost half a century of balance of power and bipolarism, a pro-western approach was adopted by Russia. Such a radical change raised new questions and realist theory explanations like human nature or the international system were not adequate in explaining the changing Russian policies towards the US. The subjects that will be taken as cases in this thesis are NATO enlargement, to which Russia has always been inflexible apart from a few times which were mandated by economic and political situation; nuclear security and disarmament problems which were important to Russia in terms of security and balance of power with both USA and former Soviet republics. The Russian approach to these cases will be studied in relation to NATO policies. This thesis argues that there are various factors affecting the foreign policy and focuses on the analysis of these reasons from a theoretical point of view of neo-classical realism. It takes into account not only one variable, which is the international structure, but leader images, strategic culture, state-society relations, domestic institutions.