The ‘newnormal’ in Russian Foreign Policy Thinking

Duleba, Alexander

doi:10.1177/2336825x1602400110

Cited by 2 publications

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“…According to Szomolányi (2004 as cited in Szomolányi & Pridham, 2004), in the 1990s Slovakia ‘represented a borderline case between that of the more advanced Central European and the lagging South-East European countries’ (p. 149). Its political representatives had to invest significant efforts to disprove the images of Slovakia’s inability to join the progressive and prosperous stream of unified Europe (Burgess, 1997) which was difficult to do under Mečiar’s era that exhibited ambivalent narratives of returning to West/East (Marušiak, 2013; Duleba, 2015; 2019). Mečiar proclaimed, ‘Slovakia has been included into the enlargement process where it has its place’, yet, the EU members will ‘manipulate with Slovakia as it is a lost wagon’ (as cited in Mesežnikov, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The idea of ‘Slavic Brotherhood’ has traditionally been a dominant theme representing Slovakia’s Identitarian dependence with nations in the ‘East’. In Slovakia’s political thinking, images of Ukraine have historically been shaped by perceptions of Russia (Marušiak, 2013; Duleba, 2015) that was seen as the leader of the ‘imaginary Slavic community’ (Bátora p. 139 in Ejdus 2017). As argued by Duleba (2015), historically, Russia has not been associated with the discourse of imperialism given that ‘Slovaks’ past negative experiences with Russian imperialism are neither particularly dramatic nor particularly numerous’ in opposition to Poland or Baltic countries (p. 161).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Slovakia’s political thinking, images of Ukraine have historically been shaped by perceptions of Russia (Marušiak, 2013; Duleba, 2015) that was seen as the leader of the ‘imaginary Slavic community’ (Bátora p. 139 in Ejdus 2017). As argued by Duleba (2015), historically, Russia has not been associated with the discourse of imperialism given that ‘Slovaks’ past negative experiences with Russian imperialism are neither particularly dramatic nor particularly numerous’ in opposition to Poland or Baltic countries (p. 161). Moreover, pan-Slavic elements or as Kazharski (2019) highlights, ‘the ideological nexus between Rusophilia, Slavophilia, anti-Western social conservatism and Slovak nationalism’ have continued to play an important role in the contemporary Slovak political discourse (p. 431).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transiting From the East to the ‘Core’ West of Europe: Slovakia’s Ontological Liminality After the Outbreak of 2022 Russia’s War on Ukraine

Čanji

2023

Alternatives: Global, Local, Political

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This article examines the effects of the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022 on the reconstruction of the notion of ‘Eastern Europe’ in Slovak political discourse and the subsequent re-definition of Slovakia’s political subjectivity vis-à-vis the contested notion of the ‘East’. It aims to advance the application of ontological liminality concept in international relations integrating it with post-structuralist and post-colonial insights on identity formation. I seek to shed light on how Slovakia negotiates its liminal position of being ‘the East of the Western Europe’ under the new geopolitical and discursive realities. Drawing on the concept of ontological liminality and post-colonial notion of master, my principal argument suggests that Slovakia aspired to demonstrate its capability to define the normative meaning of EUrope as one of its ‘core’ members positioning itself as a superior European state, a ‘master’ in relation to Ukraine. Although, on Slovakia’s mental map, the notion of ‘East’ assumes a far-away position it escaped long time ago, at the same time ‘East’ with the tinge of orientalism has been constructed as an indispensable subject position that the future newcomers to EUrope carry when they are pursuing their transition to the West. Based on hierarchically underpinned discursive self-positioning of Slovakia, ‘East’ is thus made a pre-liminal attribute which post-communist countries let go when beginning their transition to/through the Central Europe that ultimately emerges as an intermediary post-colonial spatial and discursive setting where liminals undergo the ritual of becoming genuinely EUropean.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transiting From the East to the ‘Core’ West of Europe: Slovakia’s Ontological Liminality After the Outbreak of 2022 Russia’s War on Ukraine

Čanji

2023

Alternatives: Global, Local, Political

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“…There are two opposing views in the existing literature on whether there is a Russian foreign policy strategy toward the Visegrad region. The first view, one that is held by most of the academic and foreign policy establishment (Marušiak 2015;Rácz 2014;Duleba 2016) is that there is no strategic approach toward the region. Andás Rácz interpreted this as a Russian failure to elaborate a new strategy toward the region, while Visegrad leaders preferred to limit the influence of Russia.…”

Section: Theoretical Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Russian Influence-Seeking by Way of Natural Gas Supplies in the Visegrad Countries from 1990 to 2015

Sárvári

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Findings of my dissertation contribute to three bodies of literature - in the first place to the burgeoning field of influence in international relations, secondly to the conflicted nature of energy security, and finally to the literature on policy choices during transition in the natural gas sector. First, conceptual confusion about what influence in international relations is, how to measure it and analyse, persists in the literature. This is a result of the interplay of a number of factors. I argue, that the concept of influence is as important as it is ambiguous in international relations. The same applies to the notion of power. Moreover, the two concepts are inherently connected, however, one defines them, and they are even equated by many, at least in certain contexts, even though power-as-influence should be distinguished from power-as-control. Conceptually, I introduced the process tracing method to assessing historic developments of influence by analysing geographical proximity, existing pipeline infrastructure, ruling elites’ relations with Russia and the EU requirements on the stance of Visegrad Countries. To my best knowledge, this has not been done before. Second, energy security resulted in more than three dozen mainstream definitions available in the energy security literature and additional meta-literature on the classification of energy security definitions and conceptualizations. My contribution to the energy security literature in this context is refocusing the concentration from a prescriptive conceptual approach to energy security which has been preoccupied with finding the right definition, to a conceptualization of energy security grounded in empirical observation and guided by a descriptive approach. Instead of defining what energy security ought to be, I provide empirical observations. Not everything that governments prioritize and do, which pertains to energy, is energy security. Contrary to the expectations of the literature, governments often prioritize other aims than security, even in the objective lack of sufficient security. Additionally, I have enriched literature by introducing the quantitative measure of links of government officials to the previous regime, linking the problem of transitional policies to energy security, which is particularly applicable to understanding of security in general, and energy security in particular during times of transition from totalitarian regimes towards more open and pluralistic ones. The broader theoretical contribution of this dissertation consists of finding the definition for influence in international relations, also finding an argument for reframing the energy policy debate by bringing back domestic politics, and contributing to understanding of policy prioritization during the transition in the natural gas sector. By providing an explanation for the variation and timing of domestic responses to the structural position of gas import dependence over time in countries in transition I have also contributed to the broader research field of domestic responses to comparable international conditions. The analytical framework presented in the research could be used when applied to other cases within this understudied group of countries. The lack of theoretical background in the natural gas security problems has wrought a place where, in most cases, the descriptive analysis completely rules the debate on the role that natural gas resources play in foreign policy.

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The ‘newnormal’ in Russian Foreign Policy Thinking

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Transiting From the East to the ‘Core’ West of Europe: Slovakia’s Ontological Liminality After the Outbreak of 2022 Russia’s War on Ukraine

Transiting From the East to the ‘Core’ West of Europe: Slovakia’s Ontological Liminality After the Outbreak of 2022 Russia’s War on Ukraine

Russian Influence-Seeking by Way of Natural Gas Supplies in the Visegrad Countries from 1990 to 2015

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