Editor's Introduction

Abstract

Can liberal democracy in Russia succeed in maintaining a unified country in a state of civil tranquillity while extending political rights and civil liberties to the entire population? This is the question, crucial to Russian development, that the articles in this issue address either implicitly or explicitly. On the answer rests not only the fate of 150 million Russians and their almost as numerous compatriots in the former Soviet Union but the security of Western Europe, the future of the Atlantic Alliance, and the ability of the United States to pursue the domestic agenda that President Clinton clearly prefers to foreign policy concerns.