An original and challenging examination of how to transform post-Sovietological study of Soviet and Russian foreign policy into a more integrated part of the Social Sciences and International Relations Theory. This book represents the first detailed and sustained synthesis international relations theory and Soviet/Russian foreign and security policy in academic literature.

Contents: The problem and the argument; How to evaluate theories?; The heritage of Soviet foreign policy studies; Russia and the international system; Russian foreign policy decision-making; The argument restated: beyond objectivism and relativism; Bibliography.

’This pioneering volume offers the first serious scholarly effort to integrate the work of international relations theorists with that of area studies analysts of Russian foreign policy...offers a new agenda for research and is required reading for all those seeking to understand post-Soviet foreign and security policy in a wider social science context.’ Dr Roy Allison, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK ’...Pursiainen has done an excellent job of working through central issues in the three main international relations paradigms and has woven together a positive and thoughtful analysis of important issues facing scholars who are engaged in constructing and testing theory...’ Slavic Review