Russia And The World Trade Organization

Witte goes on to describe how Russia is starting to find their place in the domination of foreign industry. He notes that even though the country is not running at its fullest potential right now, it will be soon. Russians have a great capacity for work, along with the abundance of raw materials and strong knowledge of agriculture. Now that Russia has disposed of the serfdom policies that have been in place for many hundreds of years, it is on its way to becoming a foreign powerhouse.

Though it may sound heartless and selfish, the needs and aims of countries usually are the primary factor controlling their foreign relations. During the period of the czars, from 1547 to 1917, Russia’s need for land and modernization shaped its relationships with Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire, causing Russia’s leaders to respect and imitate Western Europe while competing with the European powers to fill the power vacuum of the failing Ottoman Empire.

Russia’s attitude towards NATO was provoked by the discussions on its eventual expansion onto East Central Europe. Russia’s negativity was accompanied by a massive campaign against the enlargement of NATO. Russia saw he emergence of its first foreign policy which brought together representatives of all major political forces from communists to democrats and from liberally oriented enthusiasts of market

Globalization has been one of the most import reasons why the world has become a place where everyone can communicate with each other, travel to places in a shorter period of time than before and have a massive variety of goods and services provided to, from which they can choose. Globalization opened a door and created a civilization that can bring people together and created all kinds of resources accessible to everyone. Technology improves every day and these helped countries to export and import goods and services to other countries through advanced mechanical technology. Such facilities were unapproachable or limited to an extent before the rise of globalization. Countries wanted to import goods that they could not produce in their own country and they wanted to export goods and services to other countries that were in need of the products they could produce in great numbers. The idea of an international organization was created in 1995, named as the World Trade Organization (WTO), whose members could import and export products with each other, create agreements between two or more countries and control disagreements on trade between countries (WTO website). This organization would make trade easier and more effective to its members and eventually promote a sense of development (Litonjua, 2010, 45). Two members of the WTO are Canada and the United Kingdom, which are both categorized as Developed countries in the industrialized world. Their role in the WTO

The foreign policies of Russia also compliments in many ways its domestic policies, both in the apparent want for dominance and security in the focal point on sovereignty. These aims lead to an importance on bringing back Russia’s international status and removing positions of power that Western states have had in Russia

Over the years, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has prided itself as the central element in the international economic management system across the world. This system incorporates other international bodies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund as well as a series of other regional trade regimes that are growing. Collectively, these structures provide a mechanism that addresses international economic interdependence as well enhancing economic interactions that offer the promise of maximizing social welfare across the globe. These aspects have been brought about due to the focus given in the post-Cold War era where international relations have evolved beyond a narrow emphasis on politico-military affairs.

Russian technology was decades behind the west, Russia was the last of the ‘great powers’ to industrialise thus found it difficult to compete with more experienced adversaries, conditions within Russian factories were poor and workers had no voice as a result of the ban upon Unions. Despite Russia’s huge mineral and resource deposits they still lagged behind western nations in

From the Beginning of the Soviet Union, the West opposed the communist nation ideologically, the capitalist West feared communism. Communism was the reason that the Soviet Union was not compatible with the Western capitalist nations. With the end of the Soviet Union and the birth of capitalism in Russia, the West believed that their eastern problem was over, although as time would tell this assumption would be incorrect. Over the next decade, Russia would exert their power over boarding nations trying to join NATO, even invading Georgia, and Ukraine. Furthermore, they would back anti-West dictators such as Assad, proving Western tensions with Russia are far from over. Political and military tensions between the West and Russia persisted after the end of the Cold War because of the rise of anti-west military elites in Russian politics. This occurred because of Russia’s inability to properly implement a free market economy. Instead, Yeltsin, the Russian president at the time, enacted “shock therapy” capitalism. This process led to corruption in Russian politics and consolidation of power among anti-western Russian elites. The anti-west security elites, such as Putin, were able to rise to power by vowing to eliminate this corruption. These elites pose a threat to the West due to their dislike and aggressiveness towards the West.

In Chapter four of their book they describe a Soviet system struggling to survive and provide for its people. According Dallin and Lapidus the Soviet economy was collapsing under the pressure of several economic realities; chief among them were “an accelerating decline in production, worsening inflation, a breakdown in inter-regional trade .” Chronic shortages were also a major issue and according to the authors and were driving dissatisfaction among Soviet consumers. Dallin and Lapidus argue that this breakdown in the economy drove wedges between political leaders and the various Soviet states. With the economy in dire straits political leaders across the Union attempted to protect their national economies from the worst of the shortages so they could placate domestic political constituents. These protectionist policies took the form of Soviet satellite states ignoring the centrally planned targets set by Russia and hording the goods for themselves. For example, Georgia's restrictions on some of its major exports such as citrus fruit and tea are an example the protectionist policies that were taking root. The authors also claim that Ukraine and Kazakhstan were ignoring targets set by the central government and failed to meet targets for grain deliveries. Protectionism became endemic to the Soviet economy according to Dallin and Lapidus. The economic scarcity and protectionist tendencies that arose due to the Soviet Union's economic weakness was also the source of

As Russia was industrializing, they saw a need for more trade in their economy. Russia only had

Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Narodnost have become the three ideological pillars of Russia’s internal policy and combine seamlessly with the social Darwinism of Russia’s foreign policy. Vladislav Surkov says that “democracy is no longer a universal concept, the reality of which can be measured by applying universal criteria that are valid in different countries.” Because of this, Russia becomes immune from criticism and other organizations because it can determine whether its system fulfills the democratic criteria. Putin had a grand design which had two main goals: the first was to reestablish at least a Union of the Slavs core countries of the former Soviet Union, and to reestablish Soviet Union under exclusive Russian leadership. In an attempt to create a Federation, Russia is trying to absorb the countries that were formed after the USSR’s fall, such as, Belarus and Ukraine. In retrospect, any country that joins up with the Federation will basically be made

2. Russia has a long history of invasions, uprisings, external influences, and revolutions which have caused its borders to expand and contract over time.1 Heroes of mythic proportion such as Alexander Nevsky earned their fame by defending the homeland in these times of strife. Nevsky, in particular, inspired in the Russian people a strong sense of Slavic nationalism that persists to this day.2 Throughout Russia’s many fluctuations, however, some factors never changed. For the vast majority of its existence, Russia has been viewed as a global power. It was not until the fall of the Soviet Union that Russia lost its global eminence. Another constant has been the need for access to warm-water ports on the Baltic and Black Seas. Russia has fought many campaigns to push its borders to these waters.1 These campaigns along with expansion eastward to the Pacific have left modern day Russia with an important legacy – access to

came out much stronger than it had entered. And it wanted to spread democracy around the world. Russia however wanted to pursue ¨Spheres of Influence¨ in Eastern Europe. This obviously was against the U.S.´s wishes. This was a problem because they wanted to rebuild the world with different government structures.

The democratization, economic liberalization, and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union is commonly attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost reforms during the period of 1985-1991. This purpose of these reforms is still a trenchant question as the countries of the old Soviet Union, particular Russia, are being pressured to further liberalize their economies.

The catastrophes of the past are the foundation of the future, events that occurred in the past cause people to envision a “better life” of not only for themselves but a society as a whole. By envisioning a better future individual rose up, advocated ideas, and policies that they believed would help in advancing their countries. For the purpose of this course, let us discuss the uprising of the Russian government and the European Council; both as single entities have their own goals, but collectively they seek to benefit their country(‘s) and promote prosperity, but through history and the changes of power has that aim been reached? Or if it is already has reached it, will these forms of government fail?