New book about Russia offers insight into ‘Challenges of Transformation’

Despite the many challenges it faces after a wrenching transformation from communism to capitalism, the Russian economy is still one of the world’s largest, and the manner in which Russia faces its challenges is a matter of global significance.

Russia’s leaders have stated that they are on a course to position the country as one of the world’s five largest economies by 2020. For that goal to be achieved there is an urgent need for the world’s business and political leaders to understand the country, its process of modernization, and the influence of the Russia of the past on the Russia of the future.

In “Russia: The Challenges of Transformation,” some of the world’s most knowledgeable authorities on Russia offer fresh perspectives on how the country fares in its domestic policies and global relations. 

Looking into Russia’s transformation requires some sobering assessments, including one that is key to Russia’s modernization; the quality of its institutions. The contributors to this book about Russia delve into the country’s relationships with major global players and its neighbors. One chapter brings fresh insight into the U.S.-Russia relationship while another offers a spectacular tour d’horizon of Russia’s relations with Asian countries and explores how Asia’s rise has dramatically altered the global environment for Russia.

The contributors explain how political challenges and ambitions interact with agendas for institutional reform and economic growth. At the same time, they make clear that neither politics nor economics alone holds the key to Russia’s future, since questions of social inequality and participation, and more generally of social reproduction, will also be decisive. Indeed, part of the contributions to the book about Russia focus on showing how these three dimensions are inextricably interconnected.    

               • What is the state’s role as “modernizer-in-chief?” 

               • Are Russia’s political leaders able to act as catalysts of change, looking at scenarios for 2012                                 and beyond? 

               • Has Russia become a “normal country?” 

Writers include:

               • Timothy Colton, chairman of Harvard University’s Department of Government

               • Georgi Derlugian, Northwestern University historical sociologist

               • Andrew Kuchins, director for the Russia Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International                          Studies in Washington, D.C.

               • Vladimir Yakunin, president of the World Forum Dialogue of Civilizations 

               • Dr. Craig Calhoun, president of New York University’s Social Science Research

The book was co-edited by Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and previous senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome and the Institute of Europe in Moscow. He served in the Soviet and Russian armed forces from 1972 to 1993.

The book can be ordered online through its publisher, New York University Press.

Piotr Dutkiewicz is co-editor of Russia: The Challenges of Transformation, and director of the Center for Governance and Public Management at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada