This book investigates the economic, political and cultural factors that influence regional economic integration processes as well as international political cooperation in the area of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The authors analyze market integration manifested in interregional trade, investment and service connections. Taking a constructivist approach, they shed new light on how national, ethnic, religious and linguistic factors as well as systems of government, political regimes and models of leadership shape foreign-policy decision-making in various post-Soviet countries.