Risk and Resurgence : Post-Soviet Russia''s Military Adventurism in Chechnya and Georgia

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Russia has struggled to reassert its Great Power status internationally by fighting two bloody wars with the breakaway republic of Chechnya and launching a controversial 2008 invasion of Georgia. What can international relations theory tell us about these risky foreign policy decisions? Can we find an overarching rationale to explain Russia's post-Soviet military adventurism? While realist concerns over power and security perhaps provide us with insights into Russia's motives, this paper argues that prospect theory presents a more accurate explanation for Russia's risk-acceptant behavior vis-a-vis Chechnya and Georgia