Strategic Yearbook 2008-2009

The theme of the 2008-2009 Yearbook is Russia in a new international setting, a power configuration different from the bipolarity of the Cold War but with characteristics reminding us of the ”classical” multipolarity of the European balance of power system between the 1600s and the twentieth century. Still, the setting is fundamentally different now because it involves China as a major global actor, and possibly also India with other actors reporting their aims and interests. The new Russia does not ”return” to a world such as it was when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989-1991 but, like all of us, finds itself in fundamentally changed conditions.

Despite its enormous wealth in energy resources, analyses and predictions about the future of Russia as regards social and health conditions, size of population, and economic status and opportunities are not too optimistic. As a military power, Russia is substantially reduced in volume since the collapse of the Soviet Union. A crucial question remains: What is Russia? A state, still an empire, a commonwealth in becoming, the heartland of Euro-Asia, European or Asian or both?

This is the nine edition of the Strategic Yearbook, a series published by the Department of Security and Strategic Studies at the Swedish National Defence College in cooperation with the Finnish National Defence University. The purpose of this series is to contribute to the field of strategic studies and to a candid and pertinent public debate on current security issues.