Russia on the Brink of the Millennium: International Policy and National Security Issues

The transition from one millennium to another is not just a calendar date, but rather a complex historical process of qualitative changes in the development of human civilization. Such an understanding of history is especially important when one would like to assess the "double step" (a new century and a new millennium) being made at the advent of a new era. Together with a geopolitical regrouping, principal qualitative shifts are taking place on the international scene. They are already evident in the territories of some of the former republics of the Soviet Union which have been replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).The goal of this important book is to contribute to a more profound study of the global changes in the area of both international and national security which have been well underway in the world community as a whole and the CIS in particular, started by the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and accelerated by the subsequent political, economic and social reforms in the CIS countries.Part I includes papers which reveal the broad spectrum of both international and regional policies.Part II concentrates on historic and modern issues of geopolitical studies, defense strategy and internal security in the former Soviet Union and contemporary Russia within both the national and international development policy contexts.