Most studies of Russia's push for Eurasian integration focus on the economic imperatives pushing integration forward or see it as a product of imperial nostalgia on the part of Russia's elites and public. This paper examines Eurasian integration from a security perspective, both in terms of traditional and contemporary non-traditional security threats and in terms of the intersection between Russia's security and economic interests. I argue that Eurasian integration serves as Russia’s attempt to pursue contradictory security objectives – revisionism in Europe, status quo in Central Asia, and cooperation in East Asia – and arises from a desire to reorder the international structure and its attendant security institutions in light of future declines in bargaining power. Extant paradigmatic explanations for Russian foreign policy are useful but insufficient; by framing Russia’s security challenges in bargaining theory, I provide a more nuanced understanding of contemporary and future policy positions.
