Sovereignty in a Relational Imperial Landscape

• In Event: Eastern European Sovereignty after Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

The violence of the Russo-Ukrainian war has generated strong claims of anti-imperial sovereignty in Ukraine and fears of losing sovereignty in the states neighbouring Russia. But what does one fear when one fears losing sovereignty? In the case of Latvia, sovereignty is generally understood as “having one’s own state.” My research shows, however, that, despite “having one’s own state,” sovereignty can also be perceived as eroding as a result of large-scale land sales and emigration. Moreover, while the fear of losing political sovereignty is oriented eastward, the fear of losing land and residents is oriented westward. Scholars often discuss sovereignty in the register of desire. Here, I consider sovereignty in relation to fear. When looking ethnographically from the imperial fault line between Russia and the West, sovereignty is best understood as pursuit of a particular configuration of autonomy and dependency that enables a collective subject to persist in being in the desired form. This, however, entails its own violence.

Author

• Dace Dzenovska, U of Oxford (UK)