Political Science 397SP - ST-Post-SovietForeign&ScrtyPol

This course examines the foreign and security policy priorities guiding Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the post-Soviet space. Their strategic interests, security concerns, domestic core of foreign policy, and mechanisms of decision-making are expounded. The course elucidates the foreign policy making of the post-Soviet states in the light of interaction between the forces of globalization, regionalization, and nationalism. Foreign and integration policy dilemmas of the new states of the former Soviet Union are explored against the background of renewed geopolitical competition between Russia from one side and the European Union and the United States from another. The impact of democratic aspirations on policy evolution in those nations is highlighted. The course also focuses on the Russian strategy and course of actions vis-a-vis Ukraine.

Open to Senior, Junior and Sophomore POLISCI majors.