International Relations

Running head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
International Relations
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1INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Introduction
Politics is all about the exercise and balance of power. Since the Second World War,
the world has been divided into two power groups, USA and Russia. After the Second World
War, this division became more pronounced and an environment of resentment and mistrust
grew between the two superpowers (Hedenskog 2013). The main reason for which nations
develop this kind of situation is Power. This idea of power and how international politics and
foreign policy are driven by power is propagated in Morgenthau’s Principles of Realism. The
political standpoint of Russia has always been ahead of most of the countries. They have
superior nuclear and military power that has enabled them to maintain their position in
international politics. They have always harbored imperialistic interest and have attempted
territorial expansion in the past (Schwartz and Butenko 2014). The Second World War and
subsequent Cold War saw many incidents that led people to believe that third world war is
imminent. Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 is one such incident. Through this incident both the
powers, USA and USSR recognized the importance of peace, power balance and cooperation
in world politics. In this report, the different aspects of power as exercised by Russia such as
Military power, Economic power, Cultural power and Diplomacy has been explored.
Following that, the Principles of Realism has been discussed and how it incorporates the
concept of power has also been analyzed. Finally, with the help of that theory, Cuban Missile
Crisis, an incident during the cold war that brought the world on the brink of third world war,
has been evaluated.

2INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Power and foreign policy of Contemporary Russia
Military power
From the perspective of power, it can be stated that the Federation of Russia is
undoubtedly one of the super powers even after the end of the Cold War and bi-polar politics.
The military exercises in the neighboring countries and deliberate suppression is still
prevalent in the foreign policy of Russia that makes it vulnerable threat to the world peace
and cohesion (Keating and Kaczmarska 2019). The military power has also been developed
to a rapid scale since the end of the cold war. The decline of Communism and the fall of the
symbolic Berlin Wall never changed the vision of the Russian government from the context
of aggressive and coercive actions towards the rest of the world. The resemblance of the hard
power in its military power can be seen in case of Russia that makes it a vulnerable and
powerful nation in the Eastern European region even today.
In this regard, one of the best example of the Russian military power can be identified
in its military aggrandizement against Ukraine in 2014. The problem erupted in March 2014
when the Russian Special Forces occupied Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula (Luhn 2018). It was
definitely a violation of the international treaty on peace and sovereignty where the President
of Russia Vladimir Putin advocated that Crimea’s natural gas reserves were trying to make
partnership with the US companies. As a sovereign country it is the right of Ukraine to make
its own trade agreements to any countries that it is willing to be (Thompson and Thompson
2015). This military conflict is still going between the Russian army and Ukraine. The
situation became so much devastated when Russia started funding and aiding the separatist
groups in Eastern Ukraine and stormed down the Crimean peninsula with a death toll of
10,000 people.

3INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
From the research of Luhn (2018) it can be claimed that despite of using the
conventional forces in the Crimean crisis, the motive of Russia was way different from its
erstwhile aggression. A clear sense of revisionism is played extensively with the purpose of
improve the position of Russia in the global world order. The practice was associated with
creating significant space in the world politics by using the traditional practice of coercion
and aggression. It made Russia to refurbish its cold war image of aggression and annexation
in the name of communism (Feklyunina 2016). As a result of that it can be advocated that
there was a peaceful period after the end of the Cold War which is now evaporated with the
gradual aggression of Russia towards the neighboring countries indiscriminately.
Economic power
The use of military power in the contemporary politics is also coupled with the
economic dominance of the powerful nations over the poor and soft power countries. From
the research of Neethling (2019) it can be stated that the impact of the economic dominance
has a slow but strong impact on the global and regional economic practices. In this regard,
there are certainly different types of economic statecraft the powerful countries are playing in
the name of sanctions, direct coercion and influence. However, the research of Rynning
(2015) found out that the direct coercion had become an obsolete practice due to the
emergence of soft power politics. Henceforth, it is impossible for the big powers to easily
bend down the developing countries through fear or economic ban. For instance, the Russian
occupation in Africa is a subject of proper investigation. According to the Atlantic Center’s
Africa Center, between 2000 and 2012, trade between Africa and Russia had been increasing
tenfold because Africa could provide a healthy competition in among the world powers for
greater investment and development aid in the African continent.