The Russian People and Foreign Policy by William Zimmerman (9780691091686)

Description - The Russian People and Foreign Policy by William Zimmerman

Since the fall of communism, public opinion in Russia, including that of a now more diverse elite, has become a substantial factor in that country's policymaking process. What this opinion might be and how it responds to American actions is the subject of this study. William Zimmerman offers important and sometimes disturbing insight into the thinking of citizens in America's former Cold War adversary about such matters as NATO expansion. Drawing on nearly a decade of unprecedented surveys he conducted with a wide spectrum of the Russian public, he gauges the impact of Russia's opening on its foreign policy and how liberal democrats orient themselves to foreign policy. He also shows that insights from the study of American foreign policy are often "portable" to the study of Russian foreign policy attitudes. As Zimmerman shows, the general public, which had a modest but real role in foreign policy decision making, tended much more toward isolationism than did the predominant elites who steered Russia's foreign policy in the 1990s.Interspersing smooth prose with a wide array of richly informative tables, the book represents an invaluable opportunity to discern probable shifts in Russian foreign policy that domestic political changes would bring. And it powerfully suggests that the West, by forging its own policies toward Russia with more prudence, can have a say in the outcome of the great choice facing Russia--whether to forge ahead with democracy or slip back into authoritarianism.

Buy The Russian People and Foreign Policy by William Zimmerman from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, Boomerang Books.

Book Details

ISBN: 9780691091686
ISBN-10: 0691091684

Format: Paperback
(235mm x 152mm x mm)
Pages: 248
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publish Date: 25-Mar-2002
Country of Publication: United States

Book Reviews - The Russian People and Foreign Policy by William Zimmerman

» Have you read this book? We'd like to know what you think about it - write a review about Russian People and Foreign Policy book by William Zimmerman and you'll earn 50c in Boomerang Bucks loyalty dollars (you must be a Boomerang Books Account Holder - it's free to sign up and there are great benefits!)

Write Review

Author Biography - William Zimmerman

William Zimmerman is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. His books include Open Borders, Nonalignment and the Political Evolution of Yugoslavia and Soviet Perspectives on International Relations (both Princeton).