Russia invades an eastern European republic, sends its navy to Latin America for military exercises in America's backyard, and threatens to cut off energy supplies to western Europe. This reads like a chapter out of Cold War history.
Yet 2008 has marked the re-emergence of Russia after a two-decade hiatus. Flush with cash from oil and gas revenue and a hefty grudge against perceived Western insults to its great power status, Russia has launched the opening salvo in a more muscular foreign policy.
While the United States and Europe hoped that Russia would become more integrated into the world system, talk of NATO expansion, support for nascent eastern European democracies, and plans for basing missiles in Poland have heightened Russia's sense of alienation and its perception that it must not bend to the will of Western powers.