Russia as a Great Power: Dimensions of Security under Putin

After a period of relative weakness and instability during most of the 1990s, Russia is again appearing as a major security player in world politics. This book provides a comprehensive assessment of Russia's current security situation, addressing such questions as:

One important conclusion to emerge is that, while Russian foreign policy under Putin has become more pragmatic and responsive to both problems and opportunies, the growing lack of checks and balances in domestic politics makes political integration with the West difficult and gives the president great freedom in applying Russia's growing power abroad.

	Pavel K. Baev is a Senior Researcher and the head of the Foreign and Security Policies programmeat the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and Head of Working Group 1 (International Dimensions of Civil Wars) ath the newly-created Centre for the Study of Civil War at PRIO. After receiving his PhD from the Institute of USA and Canada, Moscow, in 1988 he worked in the Institute of Europe, Moscow until October 1992, when he joined PRIO.
	Isabelle Facon is a Research Fellow at the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, Paris and Seminar Director at the Collège Interarmées de Défense (Russian Geopolitics) and the Institut Catholique de Paris (World Politics), Paris. She was formerly a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College Oxford. A specialist in Russian defence and security policies, Facon is particularly interested in military reform and developments in civil-military relations in Russia.
	Jakub M. Godzimirski, PhD, was Acting Head of Section at the Department of Strategic Studies in the Polish Ministry of Defence in 1993-4, and has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian Studies, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), in Oslo since 1995. Godzimirski's main research focus is on Russian foreign and security policy, but he also works on projects dealing with other aspects of Russian and East European politics.
	Roland Götz, Dip. oec. publ., is head of the Russian Federation and CIS research unit at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin. An expert on the economy of the former Soviet Union and the post-Soviet states, he has a special interest in the regional and sectoral structures and economic statistics of states in transition. His current research relates to the situation and development trends of the Russian economy, as well as the regional problems and energy sector of Russia.
	Jakob Hedenskog is a Security Analyst at the Department of Defence Analysis at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). He has written "The Ukrainian Dilemma: Relations with Russia and the West in the Context of the 2004 Presidential Elections" (2004) and also published reports on Russian regions and military affairs. Holds an M.A. degree in political science and Slavonic languages from Uppsala University, Sweden.
	Lena Jonson, PhD, is Associate Professor and Senior Associate at the Swedish Institute of Inter-national Affairs, where she heads the research programme on Russian National Security Strategies. Her work includes numerous publications, with a focus on Russian foreign and security policy, most recently on Russian policy in Central Asia. She has previously been affiliated to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London. During 2002, she served with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
	Vilhelm Konnander coordinated and edited the present volume for the NNSS. Educated at Uppsala University, Stockholm University, Moscow State University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) between 1991 and 2001, he currently works with security policy issues and issue related to the Baltic Sea area in the Department for European Security Policy in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He is currently a board member of the Swedish branch of the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES). His main interests are in Russian and Baltic Sea affairs.
	Nikita Lomagin is Associate Professor of World Economy at St Petersburg State University, from which he holds degrees in history (Candidate of Science) and law. He has held various positions, among others at the College of Europe, George Washington University, Washington, DC, and Harvard University. His research focuses on the new Russian foreign policy, soft security issues, international organizations and modern Russian history. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London.
	Iver B. Neumann, DPhil (Oxon), is Senior Researcher at NUPI, where he headed the Centre for Russian Studies in 1995-7. He is currently writing the history of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its centenary in 2005. Among his 12 books are Russia and Europe: A Study in Identity and International Relations (Routledge, 1996) and Uses of the Other: 'The East' in European Identity Formation (University of Minnesota Press, 1999).
	Bertil Nygren is Associate Professor at the Department of Strategy and Security, Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm, where he heads a research programme on Russia and the CIS. He is also senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University, where he has held various leading administrative positions. He has published numerous monographs, anthologies and articles, mostly on Soviet and Russian foreign policy, the most recent being an anthology co-edited with Yuri Fedorov, Russian Military Reform and Russia's New Security Environment.
	Ingmar Oldberg is Associate Director of Research and former project leader at the Department of Defence Analysis, Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). He has written many books, reports and articles on Russian and Soviet foreign policy, specifically with regard to the neighbouring countries in the west, on Russian regional policy, for instance, concerning Kaliningrad, and on Russian military affairs and environmental problems in Eastern Europe. In 2002 he was a guest researcher at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin.
	Christer Pursiainen is Senior Research Fellow at Nordregio-the Nordic Centre for Spatial Development-in Stockholm, and Associate Professor in international relations at the University of Helsinki. He is the leader of the Russia section of the NNSS. A specialist in international relations theory and Russian affairs, he has initiated, led and participated in several inter-national research and educational projects and programmes.
	Mette Skak is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. She received an MA in Russian language and history in 1980, and a PhD in 1989. Since then, she has been working at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University - from 1993 as Associate Professor. Skak's main area of interest is Russian and Central and East European foreign and security policies, currently with a focus on Russia as an actor in the international system as well as the fake dissolution of the Comintern in 1943 and its broader context.
	Ekaterina Stepanova is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) in Moscow, where she chairs a research group on non- traditional security threats. Stepanova holds a PhD in history from Moscow State University. In 2003, she was on leave from IMEMO to work as a Researcher on armed conflict, terrorism and trans-national crime at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Baev	Facon	Godzimirski	Götz	Hedenskog	Jonson	Konnander
Lomagin	Neumann	Nygren	Oldberg	Pursiainen	Skak	Stepanova