Any reader with an interest in geopolitics, Russia, or the balance of power in the world can't pass up author Alex battler's bold new book. Battler uses a comprehensive approach to determine Russia's real place and role in international relations. His book contains original formulations of several laws that operate the geostrategic sphere, such as pole, center of power, and power. For the first time ever, a scholar attempts to determine the optimal proportions between GDP, the national budget, and what Battler calls a country's foreign policy potential—allowing a state formulate its national interest in a realistic manner. Also for the first time, the Western reader is made familiar with Moscow's official foreign policy doctrines and with the views of a wide range of Russian scholars on international relations as well as Russia's place and role in the world. The book shows, in a decisive manner, that Russia's place in international elations will give way to China as the United States' counterpoint in a new bipolar world order.
Alex Battler is a Russian by birth. He worked for many years in the most prestigious scientific establishments of the Soviet Union—the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, the Institute of the World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), and the Institute of Social Sciences of the CPSU Central Committee. He also spent five years in the new Russian state, working at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and Moscow State University. He was able to participate in the process of working out foreign policy decisions on the academic level. He knows his subject not only from books but also from dealing with officials who used to determine the foreign policy line of USSR / Russia. He has published 250 books and articles worldwide (mostly in Russia). These include twelve individually written books and contributions to more than twenty collective monographs. Some of these books and papers can be found in libraries around the world.
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY:
THE WORLD WITHOUT RUSSIA
BOOKS
"A tough-minded diagnosis. A severe prognosis. Bitter medicine from Russian auto-suggestion."
— Yuri Baturin, Russian Cosmonaut, professor of Juridical Science, former aide to the president of Russia on the National Security
"Alex Battler forcefully expounds his original and thought-provoking perspectives. This book is well worth reading for the many insights it provides into contemporary international politics and Russia's place in the world."
— Paul Marantz, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia
"Alex Battler has written a very interesting book, based on a nowadays traditional Russian pessimism about Russia's future, but also with new ingredients, like the importance of a country's economic potential in geostrategic and foreign policy terms. You donґt have to agree with his conclusions, but it gives a valuable insight into what many Russians today think about the future of their country."
— Jan Leijonhielm, Swedish Defence Research Institute