Russia Adrift‪.‬

Abstract: Ever since Christmas Day 1991, when Russia was thrust precipitately onto the international stage as a nation-state, it has been trying to fashion a national security policy for its changed status in a new era. The other 14 union-republics of the former Soviet Union welcomed independence; Russia did not. Where other republics embraced the uncertain future and quickly learned to play the game of regional and world politics - some better than others, but all with a mix of shrewdness and accommodation geared to preserving their unexpectedly bequeathed sovereignty and status - Russia's leaders were divided, fractious, and unable to forge consensus or cooperation. A power in decline, Russia knows it must adapt to an evolving international system unlike any heretofore known. Not only are empires and imperial expansion out of fashion, but so too are traditional alliances.