NEW PUBLICATION.

* How the EU can help RussiaThe EU and Russia are relatively new players on the international scene, neither having existed in its present form before the early 1990s. According to this short but perceptive book by David Gowan, a British diplomat and academic, these powerful neighbours are only just coming to understand one another enough to communicate effectively and perhaps develop a fruitful relationship. A key problem is the radically different basis of their power. Russia has a militaristic foreign policy perspective, conditioned by its authoritarian traditions and vulnerability to invasion. The EU has become, through international co-operation, an economic superpower, but has only recently gained some weak "political" foreign policy interests and capabilities. The two powers have tended to regard one another like the elephant and the whale, each barely registering on the strategic outlook of the other. Mr Gowan says that the Kremlin first viewed the EU optimistically, as a source of aid and a possible wedge between the US and Europe. Kosovo and enlargement, as well as a perception of condescension from the rich Westerners, fed an opposing impression of an expansionist, bossy Europe, extending its influence at Russia's expense. Meanwhile, the EU has been frustrated by Russia's corruption, authoritarianism...