Literature and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe (390-0-1)
Topic
Fall of the USSR & the Rise of Russia
Instructors
Ian C Kelly
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
"This course will examine the roots and the drivers of Putin's foreign policy. It will look at the factors leading to the USSR's disintegration and resulting ethnic conflicts, the security issues requiring responses from the U.S., and the decision-making processes in responding to these challenges.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union was the twentieth century's last in a series of collapses of multinational empires, and it presented the U.S. with the most difficult security challenges. In the immediate aftermath, U.S. policy makers were faced with not one but four nuclear powers (Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus), thousands of under-secured nuclear weapons and under-paid nuclear scientists, and several armed secessionist conflicts in the Caucasus and Moldova.
The collapse of the USSR meant the end of an uneasy, but by and large consensual, international security system. Russia has shown a willingness to reject that consensus. It has rejected Western support for the democratic aspirations of former Soviet states, willing even to use military force to deny countries like Ukraine and Georgia their sovereign rights to join NATO and the EU. Closer to home, it has employed various direct and indirect efforts to undermine Western solidarity and confidence in the liberal democratic system."
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students should better understand the factors behind the collapse of the USSR, and the complexities of the security environment of the post-Cold War world, particularly Russia's efforts to assert what it sees as its right to a sphere of influence.
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Interdisciplinary Distro-rules apply
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area