TY - JOUR
T1 - Limited at best? Changing discourses on China in Russia’s identity structure before and after the 2014 crisis
AU - Dharmaputra, Radityo
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to thank Viacheslav Morozov for his extensive comments, guidance, and suggestions for this paper. I would also like to thank Ammon Cheskin for the help during the research; to the participants and panelists during the CEEISA-ISA Joint Conference in Belgrade July 2019 (especially to Anatoly Reshetnikov for his important suggestions, and for Erica Resende and Ayse Zarakol for the insightful comments), the Narva Workshop in September 2019, and the 3rd Ghent-Russia colloquium in November 2019, especially for the discussants Yulia Nikitina and Anna Kireeva from MGIMO for their constructive comment. I would offer my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and to the co-editor of this special issue, Fabienne Bossuyt, and Marcin Kaczmarski, for their excellent feedback and enormous help in preparing this manuscript. My last appreciation to Dan O’Connell for his help with the proofreading and to Maili Vilson and Johan Skytte Institute for Political Studies, University of Tartu, for their funding for the proofreading of the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This paper aims to reconstruct the “Asian” dimension of Russian national identity discourse by using relations with China as a case study. It analyses the foreign policy debate before and after the 2014 Ukrainian crisis (2010–2016) by focusing on the emerging concept of “pivot to the East.” Based on a discourse analysis of official documents, elites’ speeches, and think-tank views, this paper inductively recovers the identity discourse, structured around linking/differentiation and such themes as the relative perception of China’s threat. This research shows that the identity structure put several limitations in the way of engagement with China. These interlinked structures made it extremely difficult for the more intense economic turn toward China, which eventually occurred only when the relationship with the West (as the significant Other in Russian identity) broke down after the 2014 crisis. By comparing the identity structure and policies before and after the crisis of 2014 and following the poststructuralist notion of mutually constitutive relations between identity and foreign policy, this paper argues that policy changes after 2014 affected the gradual changes in identity narratives. However, there was not enough time and pressure to change the deeper layer of the core identity discourse.
AB - This paper aims to reconstruct the “Asian” dimension of Russian national identity discourse by using relations with China as a case study. It analyses the foreign policy debate before and after the 2014 Ukrainian crisis (2010–2016) by focusing on the emerging concept of “pivot to the East.” Based on a discourse analysis of official documents, elites’ speeches, and think-tank views, this paper inductively recovers the identity discourse, structured around linking/differentiation and such themes as the relative perception of China’s threat. This research shows that the identity structure put several limitations in the way of engagement with China. These interlinked structures made it extremely difficult for the more intense economic turn toward China, which eventually occurred only when the relationship with the West (as the significant Other in Russian identity) broke down after the 2014 crisis. By comparing the identity structure and policies before and after the crisis of 2014 and following the poststructuralist notion of mutually constitutive relations between identity and foreign policy, this paper argues that policy changes after 2014 affected the gradual changes in identity narratives. However, there was not enough time and pressure to change the deeper layer of the core identity discourse.
KW - China
KW - Russian foreign policy
KW - discourse and practices
KW - identity structure
KW - pivot to the east
KW - the 2014 crisis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112050072&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15387216.2021.1944248
DO - 10.1080/15387216.2021.1944248
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112050072
SN - 1538-7216
VL - 62
SP - 607
EP - 633
JO - Eurasian Geography and Economics
JF - Eurasian Geography and Economics
IS - 5-6
ER -