Imperial Wreckage: Property Rights, Sovereignty, and Security in the Post-Soviet Space

Abstract

Alexander Cooley of Johns Hopkins University explores the efforts of Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union to address the region's "residual assets" problem in the wake of the Cold War through the development of a series of “unconventional governance structures” in the form of bilateral agreements. Under these agreements, Russia has been able to lease back residual assets such as communications installations, harbor facilities for the Black Sea Fleet, military bases, and the Baikonur cosmodrome in exchange for annual rent payments and explicit acknowledgments that these assets formally belong to the post-Soviet states. Cooley considers the implications of these arrangements for two major issues in the study of international relations: the nature of sovereignty and the prevention of conflict.