Russia's soft security policy under Vladimir Putin: 2000-2008

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2009

Öğrenci: BURÇİN TÜRKOĞLU

Danışman: OKTAY FIRAT TANRISEVER

Özet:

This thesis aims to study Russian soft security policy under Vladimir Putin and examines the basic soft security threats which Russia has encountered and how it fought against these threats in the post-Soviet era. Contrary to the mainstream literature suggesting that Russia has focused exclusively on hard security issues within its national security policies due to its historical background and geo-political factors, the thesis argues that Russia started to give more importance to soft security besides hard security in its national security policies since Putin’s presidency. Among soft security challenges, Russia prioritizes especially terrorism, transnational organized crime and energy security. The thesis is composed of six chapters. The introductory first chapter is followed by the second chapter examining the role of soft security in Russian national security. The following three chapters discuss Russia’s soft security challenges of terrorism, transnational organized crime and energy security respectively whereas the sixth chapter concludes the thesis.