This book explores Russia’s sense of its own uniqueness and the impact this has had on Russia’s conduct of international relations. Examining concepts such as Russia’s special civilising mission, its difference from the West, its proneness to conduct violent warfare, and more, and discussing these concepts in relation to Russia’s history and its present behaviour, and also in relation to other countries’ views of themselves as exceptional, the book highlights Russia’s sense of its own identity as a key factor shaping current international events.

This book explores Russia's sense of its own uniqueness and the impact this has had on Russia's conduct of international relations. Examining concepts such as Russia's special civilising mission, its difference from the West, its proneness to conduct violent warfare, and more, and discussing these concepts in relation to Russia's history and its present behaviour, and also in relation to other countries' views of themselves as exceptional, the book highlights Russia's sense of its own identity as a key factor shaping current international events.

This monograph provides a novel long-term approach to the role of Russia’s imperial legacies in its interactions with the former Soviet space. It develops ‘Hybrid Exceptionalism’ as a critical conceptual tool aimed at uncovering the great power’s self-positioning between ‘East’ and ‘West’, and its hierarchical claims over subalterns situated in both civilizational imaginaries. It explores how, in the Tsarist, Soviet, and contemporary eras, distinct civilizational spaces were created, and maintained, through narratives and practices emanating from Russia’s ambiguous relationship with Western modernity, and its part-identification with a subordinated ‘Orient’. The Romanov Empire’s struggles with ‘Russianness’, the USSR’s Marxism-Leninism, and contemporary Russia’s combination of feigned liberal and civilizational discourses are explored as the basis of a series of successive civilising missions, through an interdisciplinary engagement with official discourses, scholarship, and the arts. The book concludes with an exploration of contemporary policy implications for the West, and the former Soviet states themselves.

In The Right to Rule: American Exceptionalism and the Coming Multipolar World Order, Hugh De Santis explores the evolution of American exceptionalism and its effect on the nation’s relations with the external world. De Santis argues that the self-image of an exceptional, providentially blessed society unlike any other is a myth that pays too little heed to the history that shaped America’s emergence, including its core beliefs and values, which are inheritances from seventeenth-century England. From the republic’s founding to its rise as the world’s preeminent power, American exceptionalism has underpinned the nation’s foreign policy, but it has become an anachronism in the twenty-first century. De Santis argues that, in the emerging multipolar world order, the United States will be one of several powers that determine the structure and rules of international politics, rather than the sole arbiter.

This book explores how far messianism, the conviction that Russia has a special historical destiny, is present in, and affects, Russian foreign policy. Based on extensive original research, including analysis of public statements, policy documents and opinion polls, the book argues that a sense of mission is present in Russian foreign policy, that it is very similar in its nature to thinking about Russia’s mission in Tsarist times, that the sense of mission matters more for Russia’s elites than for Russia’s masses, and that Russia’s special mission is emphasised more when there are questions about the regime’s legitimacy as well as great power status. Overall, the book demonstrates that a sense of mission is an important factor in Russian foreign policy.

In this sobering analysis of American foreign policy under Trump, the award-winning economist calls for a new approach to international engagement. The American Century began in 1941 and ended in 2017, on the day of President Trump’s inauguration. The subsequent turn toward nationalism and “America first” unilateralism did not made America great. It announced the abdication of our responsibilities in the face of environmental crises, political upheaval, mass migration, and other global challenges. As a result, America no longer dominates geopolitics or the world economy as it once did. In this incisive and passionate book, Jeffrey D. Sachs provides the blueprint for a new foreign policy that embraces global cooperation, international law, and aspirations for worldwide prosperity. He argues that America’s approach to the world must shift from military might and wars of choice to a commitment to shared objectives of sustainable development. A New Foreign Policy explores both the danger of the “America first” mindset and the possibilities for a new way forward, proposing timely and achievable plans to foster global economic growth, reconfigure the United Nations for the twenty-first century, and build a multipolar world that is prosperous, peaceful, fair, and resilient.

This book analyzes Russia and its effects on the international system in order to better understand Russia's place in world politics. Contributions explore Russian foreign policy, the economy and statecraft, the Arctic, arms control, national security, the environment, soft power, and Russian relations with the United States, Europe, and Eurasia.