In one way or another, these papers from the Strategic Studies Institute's annual conference on Russia in May 2012 included in this book all point to the internal pathologies that render Russian security a precarious affair at the best of times. As the editor suggests, the very fact of this precariousness makes Russia an in--herently unpredictable and even potentially danger--ous actor, not necessarily because it will actively at--tack its neighbors, though we certainly cannot exclude that possibility, but rather because it may come apart trying to play the role of a great power in Eurasia or elsewhere. As we all know, that outcome happened in 1917 and in 1989-91, with profound implications for international security and U.S. interests.