Cover -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Endorsement -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: And yet another book -- Reference -- 1 Forms of power in international relations -- Lake's distinction between authority and coercion -- The pillars of authority -- Why use coercion: benefits, costs and risks -- Economic sanctions: coercion, available to all -- References -- 2 State-building in Russia and the choice for coercion in external relations -- State-building by authoritarian rulers -- Putin's conception of the Russian state -- Yeltsin's legacy -- Putin comes into office: accumulating resources -- Nation-building as part of the state-building project -- The external dimension of state-building and the use of coercion -- Notes -- References -- 3 Multilevel arrangements in EU external relations: Stimulating authority, constraining coercion -- Multilevel governance interplay in the EU -- Europeanization through conditionality -- The "golden carrot" of membership -- Economic coercion: the effects of multilevel governance -- Note -- References -- 4 Russia and the EU: From failed authority to mutual coercion -- The '90s: failure of authority -- 2000-2014: the foundation of a new status quo -- From 2014 onwards: coercion against coercion -- Notes -- References -- 5 Russia and the EU: No winners in the common neighborhood -- Russia: why building a coalition is so important -- EU: modest offers produce modest results -- Russia, the EU and the choices of "common neighborhood" countries -- Notes -- References -- 6 Belarus: Strangulation in a fraternal embrace -- The "Belarusian system"--How and why does it persist? -- Russia and Belarus: in a fraternal embrace -- EU-Belarus: very few "points of entry"--Bat'ka Lukashenka: a hostage to his own image -- Notes -- References