University of Notre Dame Press Whose World Order?: Russia's Perception of American Ideas after the Cold War

Intellectual ideas on the international community can make important contributions to how cultures perceive one another. Yet these same ideas can also be misunderstood by other societies when they are framed in a culturally exclusive manner. In Whose World Order? Andrei P. Tsygankov examines how Russian elites engage American ideas of world order and why Russians perceive these ideas as unlikely to promote a just or stable international system. Tsygankov focuses on Francis Fukuyama's ""end of history"" thesis, which argues for the global ascendancy of Western-style market democracy, and Samuel Huntington's ""clash of civilizations,"" which drew attention to what Huntington perceived to be an increasingly dominant global disorder. Tsygankov argues that Russian intellectuals received the ideas of these two prominent American scholars critically. Despite Huntington's and Fukuyama's intentions to contribute to the development of freedom and stability in the world, Russians viewed their theories at best as limitations to social and cross-cultural creativity and at worst as justification for a war-mongering, West-centered global dictatorship. Review "Anyone seeking to understand the Russian side of the debate should read this informative and insightful study. Among recent works on the American-Russian relationship, it stands out as an original contribution to our understanding of the Russian and American encounter over theories of global politics. The book's dialectical examination of that encounter invites us to enter into the discussion and the debate as well. Upper-level college students, graduate students, Russian specialists, and, for that matter, informed general readers will find Whose World Order? most rewarding." -- Perspectives on Political Science-- "Perspectives on Political Science" About the Author Andrei P. Tsygankov is professor of international relations and political science at San Francisco State University.