This thesis investigates how Russia views the role of the West in the fight against terrorism and how these representations contribute to Russia’s international positioning. While cooperation in fighting terrorism is often described as one of the rare successes in Russia–West relations during the Putin era, existing literature contains very little sustained analysis of Russian discourse on and representations of ‘the West’ in this domain, how these representations have evolved and connect to Russian identity, and how they shape Russia’s international and domestic policies.
Assuming that these representations may yield significant power and even gain the status of objective knowledge, this thesis starts by mapping how the West has been portrayed in the Russian discourse on terrorism in two important moments of the so-called War on Terror: 2001 and 2015. The analysis reveals a central contradiction in the discourse: while Russia advocates collaboration with the West, it simultaneously blames the West for facilitating — or even encouraging — terrorism.
The dissertation then advances two arguments about the shape and role of this discourse. First, it argues that ‘legalism’ — the practice of using law to explain, justify or contest policies — has enabled key Russian actors to promote this contradictory narrative on the West. Second, it argues that Russia’s legalism displaces key moral and political issues and serves as the lowest common denominator that can connect Russia to ‘universal’ norms and values. Through investigations of Russia’s involvement in Chechnya, Syria and Central Asia, the findings show that legalism provides Russia with a flexible framework for inter-state cooperation that makes little distinction between democratic and authoritarian states.
On this basis, the thesis argues that Russian legalistic discourse on the West and terrorism contributes to reproducing Russia’s position in the imperial order: Russia seeks to speak on behalf of postcolonial states victimised by ‘illegal’ Western interventionism while at the same time subjugating those it perceives as subordinate actors in both the domestic and international spheres. By employing legalism as a standard of civilisation, Russia is appropriating ‘universal’ international law to challenge the so-called rules-based order. Through its sustained analysis of legalism, the thesis therefore makes an important contribution to various literatures on Russian foreign and security policy.
Joakim Brattvoll is a PhD fellow at the EUI. His research concerns Russian foreign and security policy, the politics of international law, IR-theories and intelligence studies. In his recent publications, he has investigated the politics of knowledge production in Russia’s war against Ukraine (Journal of International Relations and Development) as well as how intelligence agencies create legendary stories about themselves through spy fiction (Intelligence and National Security).