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Essay on NATO
Russian Foreign Policies vis-à-vis NATO Expansion
Russian foreign policies have drastically changed in the context of growing involvement of NATO in the region. Russians have moved towards EU in dealing with the NATO expansion. Russian views about the European Union are generally positive and they contrast strongly with the widespread criticism leveled at NATO.
EU enlargement seemed, at first, to be perceived as an acceptable alternative to NATO expansion, but even after NATO had expanded and the EU could no longer be seen an alternative, extension of EU membership to former socialist states was still regarded positively. As Dmitri Trenin points out, there is a tendency in Russia 'to contrast "the good West of Europe/EU" with the "bad West of America/NATO".'
Russian government officials are only now beginning to appreciate how complex the task is of negotiating and consulting with both the EU and the accession states. Initially the decision taken at the Cologne European Council to expand the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) made little impression in Russia. Even when asked directly in September about what the implications would be for Russia, the foreign policy elite revealed little responsiveness of the EU's intention to develop a military capacity.
No alarm was expressed. Foreign Ministry officials directly concerned with relations with the EU were better informed, but in September 1999 they seemed worried by the consequences of exclusion to Russia's economic security, and relatively indifferent about more traditional forms of security, particularly in relation to the EU.
Certainly, this may simply reflect the problem of compartmentalization which is characteristic of most bureaucracies but which afflicts Russia particularly severely. In other words, they may have been unaware of the EU's plans for the reason that their business was the economy, while military security was dealt with in other departments....
