The New Russian Diplomacy

by Igor S. Ivanov

Release Date: 01 April, 2002

Edition: Hardcover

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The Wizard of Oz and Foreign Policy

I had wanted to comment on this book previously, but had refrained. The news today of yet another state takeover of an independent Russian television network finally prompts me to write. I mean no disrespect to the Russian foreign minister, but merely voice my opinion as a private citizen.

In the movie "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy and her friends finally are allowed in to meet the "Wizard" they are told by the grandiose image on the screen to "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain". In this hopeful analysis by the Russian foreign minister, the reader gets the feeling that the little man from Kansas has nothing over the current Russian administration. While Ivanof is a talented diplomat, and makes some interesting points in general terms about Russia's position in a both historical and modern context, the reader is asked to accept a mature, accountable and democratic Russian foreign policy as a fait acompli. Barely more than a decade into Russia's new experiment in democracy, the author claims parliament, public opinion and the press all are taken into account when formulating policy. This seems to be optimistic at best.

Ivanof does make the interesting and probably mostly true point that pragmatism has replaced ideology. National interest has carried the day, and that despite apparent differences in methodology, there is a certain continuity from autocracy to communism to democracy in the carrying out of Russian foreign affairs. Still, the reality of Russia's past and the continued lack of liberty in the new Russia are not sufficiently addressed. Russia is still a state in transition. Basic rights and liberties taken for granted in the west do not yet fully exist in the new Russia. Democracy is a messy business, and to be sure, we in the glass houses of the developed 'west' are often times hardly in a position to toss stones. Nevertheless, it remains that if Russia is to take its place among the democracies as an equal, it must make that most frightening and yet necessary step from behind the curtain.