The Origins of Russia’s Vision of International Order

• In Event: Russia’s Ways of Shaping its Place in the World: From Controlling Narratives to Strategic Deception

Abstract

Back in 1945, the Soviet Union joined Western Allies in establishing the United Nations as a new collective security organization. Afterwards, the Soviet Union and then Russia were cooperative participants of the rules-based international order. However, Russia’s commitment to respecting and upholding internationally-agreed upon parameters of international relations has drastically declined under the presidency of Vladimir Putin. This paper examines how Russia views an ideal international order and what justifications feed into this vision. While Russia’s rejection of liberal internationalism has been discussed in detail on the news, such accounts have been mostly based on post-2022 events and have lacked a depth of interpretation. This work is a systematic study of the evolution of Russia’s contemporary position on international order since 1991. I argue that disagreements with Western powers over such events as the Kosovo crisis, the conduct of the war on terror, or the US intervention in Iraq convinced Moscow to seek out alternatives to the US-led liberal internationalism. Relying on hybrid tactics, the Kremlin has consistently striven to undermine US leadership and shape the international order to conform to multipolarity where Russia is treated as a great power with exclusive rights to its own sphere of influence.

Author

• Elena Pokalova, National Defense U