A Study Of Russian Diplomatic Traditions

Russian diplomatic traditions refer to the relatively lasting and stable characteristics manifested in Russian diplomatic practice over a long term.Through an analysis of such relatively stable factors as Russian geographic features, its national power and the national characteristics of Russian people, this dissertation researches into the objective factors influencing Russian diplomatic traditions from a macro-strategic level.In terms of geography, Russia is located across Europe and Asia with a vast territory of both latitudinal width and longitudinal depth neighboring with various countries of complex constitution. Though as a continental-oceanic nation bordering ocean and seas, it has been in a paucity of convenient marine outlet. Derived from the geographical features, the overall characteristics of Russian diplomacy demonstrates itself as follows: There exists a great leeway for diplomatic maneuvers allowing for greater probabilities of transformations in both foreign policies and diplomatic focuses; much importance is attached to coping with the relationships with its neighbors by adopting different diplomatic strategies towards nations of different ethnicities and religions; Avoiding double-front or multi-front battlefield occupies a dominant place in Russian diplomacy; and another outstanding position is given to anti-blockade diplomacy with an special effort to obtain and maintain the possession of marine outlets.The plurality of diplomatic conceptions and the diversity of diplomatic schools in Russia are determined by the utterly different understandings of national and cultural belongingness of the Russian nation. Be it radical idealism or conservative idealism, the Russian diplomatic ideologies are always fluctuating between extremism and conservatism, or between Oriental rationality and Western imaginativeness. By contrast, the doctrine of the mean or impartiality is scarcelytaken as an important principle.Aggressive Russian diplomatic objectives are to some extent constrained by the relative backwardness of Russia's national strength. However, a tendency of wave-upon-wave advancement can be found with the establishment of Russian diplomatic objectives and its national power throughout its diplomatic history. The national strength taken as the axis, the objectives of Russian diplomatic policies are like the prices that go up and down the axis of value -in this case, Russian national strength. In the event that Russian diplomatic objectives go beyond the national capability and Russia suffers setbacks in the international diplomatic scene, the diplomatic objectives will be adjusted in due time to harmonize itself with the national strength for better diplomatic achievements.The dissertation carries out an empirical study to research into Russian diplomatic practices from the reign of Peter the Great to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, complemented by an in-depth analysis of general Russian diplomatic traditions, the overall characteristics of its diplomatic strategies and the tactics generally adopted in Russian diplomacy.Owing to centralization of state power in Russian political system, the Russian political traditions feature in the following aspects: Russian people share a tradition of showing obedience to autocracy and admiration for leaders; a power sharing system is lacking in its political institutions with no mundane rights possessed by the church; the diplomatic policy making system is highly centralized. This centralization feature of political tradition results in an outstanding feature o.f Russian diplomatic policy making - individuals more often than not play decisive roles in it. As a consequence, some other characteristics of Russian diplomacy have been shaped among which some can be underlined as follows: a dense individual color in diplomatic sphere, a great possibility for abrupt diplomatic policy changes, a tendency of secret diplomacy, a firm implementation of the diplomatic policies, and at the same time, a frequent lack of flexibility."Double-he...