The End of Eurasia; Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization

Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005. Third printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Good. xi, [3], 354 pages. Maps. Cover and some pages have some wear and soiling. Foreword by Jessica T. Mathews; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part One--A Farewell to the Empire; The Spatial Dimension of Russian History; The Beak-Up of the U.S.S.R--A Break-in Continuity; Part Two--Russia's Three Facades; The Western Facade, The Southern Tier; The Far Eastern Backyard; Part Three--Integration; Domestic Boundaries and the Russian Question, Fitting Russia In; Conclusion on After Eurasia and an index. Trenin was director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. He had been with the center since its inception. He also chaired the research council and the Foreign and Security Policy Program. He retired from the Russian Army in 1993. From 1993-1997, Trenin held a post as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe in Moscow. In 1993, he was a senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome. He served in the Soviet and Russian armed forces from 1972 to 1993, including experience working as a liaison officer in the external relations branch of the Group of Soviet Forces (stationed in Potsdam) and as a staff member of the delegation to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva from 1985 to 1991. He also taught at the War Studies Department of the Military Institute from 1986 to 1993. This thought-provoking book examines contemporary Russian and Eurasian politics, contemplating the meaning of "Russia" today and its place in the world. Trenin takes a look at the historical patterns of Russian territorial state formation, seeks to define the challenges and opportunities that Russia faces along its geopolitical fronts, and discusses various options for "fitting" Russia into the wider world. Trenin maintains that the era during which Eurasia was synonymous with Russia is over and that Russia and Eurasia will no longer share the same geopolitical objectives. Foreign Affairs reviewed this work and stated: "This work is both the best and the most thought-provoking book on Russian foreign policy around, written by a Russian who is ahead of his time and the vast majority of his countrymen."