The Sources of Russian Aggression

ebook Is Russia a Realist Power?

By Sumantra Maitra

cover image of The Sources of Russian Aggression

Sign up to save your library

With an OverDrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for at-a-glance information about availability. Find out more about OverDrive accounts.

   Not today

Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive.

Download Libby on the App Store Download Libby on Google Play

Search for a digital library with this title

Title found at these libraries:

Library Name Distance
Loading...

Moscow indulges in the military use of force and balancing behaviour, only when it perceives its interests to be threatened, but seeks to preserve, uphold, or return to the status-quo the moment the threats subside or are neutralized by balancing actions, acting more as a security maximizer, than a power maximizer. The Sources of Russian Aggression: Is Russia a Realist Power? employs a qualitative research design and case study method, relying on secondary literature, military sources, and observed and recorded news. This evidence relies on Russian strategic actions, and not Russian rhetoric. The evidence explored suggests that Russia balances against perceived threats and that Russian use of force is directly proportional to any strategic and material loss. Alternatively, Russia behaves like a status quo power when the perceived threat subsides. Also, Maitra explains how Russian military aggression is focused on geopolitical balance and has narrow strategic aims, and Russia either lacks the will and/or capability or both to be an expansionist or occupying power. Maitra concludes that Russia is inherently a reactive power with limited regional aims, which are not commensurate with an aspiration of a continental hegemony. The findings have future policy relevance for European/British and American security, as the U.S. grows increasingly isolationist, and NATO and EU rift widens.

The Sources of Russian Aggression