The paradox of state strength: transnational relations, domestic structures, and security policy in Russia and the Soviet Union

Abstract

A transnational community of disarmament proponents achieved considerable success in influencing Soviet security policy in the 1980s on several issues, including two examined here: nuclear testing and strategic defenses. Fundamental changes in the Soviet domestic structure after 1989, however, had the paradoxical effect of making transnational actors simultaneously less constrained in promoting their favored policies and less effective in getting them implemented. Transnational relations and domestic structures in combination affect security policy. This interaction likewise has implications for theories of ideas, learning, and epistemic communities.

The Russian Trade-Off: Environment and Development in the Caspian Sea

“…Yet, although actions by the international community cannot be decisive, transnational links among interest groups or organizations may affect outcomes by influencing a dominant party's platform (Evangelista, 1995;Risse-Kappen, 1994). Open states like Russia provide relatively easy access from the outside, although they also feature intense competition among groups vying for influence.…”

Environmental mobilisation and organisations in post-socialist Europe and the former Soviet Union

“…The transition from relatively closed and insular to open societies created a means for transnational interactions to take place (Evangelista 1995) and for the diffusion of knowledge and norms to affect national and sub-national activism (Carmin and Hicks 2002). Just as policy transformation had a profound impact on environmental action and activism at the domestic level, so too did the opening of national boundaries and borders.…”

„Nord“ und „Süd“ im globalen Regieren

“…Hierbei geht es zum einen um die Sichtbarmachung bestimmter empirisch problematischer Prämissen des Global-Governance-Konzeptes und zum anderen um eine systematische Berücksichtigung innerstaatlicher Bedingungsfaktoren außenpolitischen Verhaltens. Folgt man der liberalen Schule der vergleichenden Außenpolitikforschung (Müller/Risse-Kappen 1990;Evangelista 1995;Moravcsik 1997), so dürften prekäre zivilgesellschaftliche Strukturen, tief greifende politische Transformationsprozesse und politische Instabilität bzw. die Erosion von Staatlichkeit einen manifesten Einfluss auf das Außenverhalten von Staaten haben.…”