THE END OF EURASIA: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization, by Dmitri Trenin. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002, 351 pp., $24.95 (paper)

If nations were people, then Russia would have post-traumatic stress syndrome. Over the past decade, the former superpower has been reduced to a geopolitical carnival act. Most people just don't think about Russia anymore; those that do seem to pine for the old days of a Cold War standoff with an unmistakable formidable adversary. When Russia is in the news today it is because of a terrorist attack, organized crime, corruption, a collapsing military, an environmental accident or a new demographic disaster (tuberculosis, alcoholism, AIDS) -- take your pick.

For all its troubles, Russia poses perhaps the most important geopolitical question at the beginning of the 21st century. It is the physical bridge between Europe and Asia, and its southern flank is one of the key borders between the West and the Muslim world.

Dmitri Trenin, a career Russian military officer who is now the deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, has written an extraordinary and thought-provoking book on Russia's place in the world. I cannot recommend it enough.