10431 Foreign Policy of the Soviet Union/Russia: From the Communist Era to the 21st Century

Credits: 6 intermediate credits in International Relations or in Modern History

Prerequisites: none

Recommended: Introduction to International Relations; Democracies and Dictatorships: Comparative Politics1

Author: Oded Eran

The course discusses the development of Soviet foreign policy from 1917 to 1991, and the foreign policy of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The discussion reaches 2002, and surveys ideological and pragmatic dimensions of policy with respect to various issues and different areas of the world as well as bureaucratic and internal political aspects.

Topics: History, ideology and bureaucratic structure; World War II and the Cold War; Khrushchev’s foreign policy, Brezhnev’s foreign policy, Soviet foreign policy – 1975-1985; The Soviet approach to the third world, the international communist movement; Russian foreign policy – from the communist era to the 21st century.


1or Democracies and Dictatorships: Ideas, Contexts, Regimes (10660, 3 cr.) which is no longer offered.