In the title of Dmitri Trenin’s latest book, «and» is the crucial word. The author formulates the dynamics of Russia’s possible integration with the West by stressing the internal evolution of the country’s identity as the sole pathway to such a civilizational shift. While traditional forms of integration may compromise national and cultural identity, carrying with them a diminution of self-rule, Trenin redefines the terms of what such an integrationist choice entails for Russia.

The West, in his argument, stands for an innovative, post-industrial society bound by a set of fundamental values and freedoms. While the EU or NATO could potentially serve as external «locomotives» of modernization for countries like Turkey or Ukraine, a complex and conflicted entity such as Russia could only become a part of the Western world through a process of internal makeover.

Trenin’s model presents stark choices for the Russian elite. Although fitful efforts at physical integration with Western alliances failed during the past decade, he makes it is clear that a rebuff of integration from within could only lead to the country’s marginalization and stagnation. Trenin’s wider goal is to rehabilitate Russian liberals and Westernizers by inscribing their traditional ambitions within a patriotic commitment to strengthening and consolidating the Russian state.

Trenin’s case makes for an inspired book, but his argument appears more like rhetorical sleight of hand. Substituting rarefied concepts for the practical challenges faced both by Russia and the West would work as a philosophical treatise or a program for a political party but it hardly provides a cogent course of action. Russian liberals are still prone to make leaps of exposition that show their engagement with the country’s predicament to be far removed from the realities shaping political discourse inside the country.

Carnegie Moscow Center, Evropa, Moscow 2006, 401 pp.

Russia Profile September 27, 2006