THE FORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION’S FOREIGN POLICY COURSE IN THE 1990s AND 2000s IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GLOBALIZATION–SOVEREIGNTY DICHOTOMY

Abstract

The foreign policy course and actual foreign policy of post-Soviet Russia between 1991 and 2025 have undergone significant changes; these can be understood and explained through the lens of the "globalization vs. sovereignty" binary opposition. In the latter context, this refers to the polity—and its ruling elites—clearly recognizing their national interests, including the need for dominance within the post-Soviet space.
This article aims to examine the formation and transformation of the Russian Federation's foreign policy course—as practically manifested in the country's foreign policy—whereby state and non-state actors asserted their interests by employing both "hard power" mechanisms and "soft power" tools.

The research employed the following methods: a systems approach; civilizational and culturological paradigms; neorealism (as both an approach and a scholarly school); factor analysis; content analysis of foreign policy doctrine documents; SWOT analysis; and the "bubbles" projective technique.
The analysis yielded the following key conclusions: 1) the Russian Federation's foreign policy course following the USSR's collapse in the early 1990s was radically influenced by global political megatrends (globalization, democratization, and political integration); 2) during the first decade following the re-establishment of the state—which remained the historical Russia, albeit with a truncated territory—the foreign policy course took the country's national interests into account to a lesser degree; 3) the Russian Federation's foreign policy from 1991 to 2025, shaped by both domestic and external actors, can be logically characterized using the political metaphor of a "geopolitical pendulum"; and 4) it was only from the mid-2000s onwards that the country's foreign policy course began to rely on clearly articulated national interests, reflecting the political will of key social strata and population groups.

Based on the study conducted, the author proposes recommendations for state and non-state foreign policy entities (such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rossotrudnichestvo, and Russian NGOs) that could be taken into account during the implementation of the Russian Federation’s foreign policy course.