Pragmatic Realism

Abstract

The foreign policy of modern Russia is based on the principle of “pragmatism,” and it is this guiding principle that is employed to address and solve world problems. The Russian minister of foreign affairs Sergey Lavrov stresses that the “key principles of the Russian foreign policy, such as pragmatism, openness, multi-vectorness, are consistently applied, but without confrontation, in upholding national intere st s.”¹ Lavrov in his “conceptual speeches” explains that these considerations form the foundations for present-day Russia’s foreign policy in the modern world. He also emphasizes that these principles are the central ones that characterize Russia’s foreign policy through all principal documents, starting from the “Concept of the Foreign of the Russian Federation”² through to future documents of this kind.

Financial support from the Nomura Foundation and the University of Niigata Prefecture is gratefully acknowledged.