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

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Since 1991, the Russian government has gradually asserted a more aggressive presence on the international arena. Moscow has advanced its own vision of international order and has resorted to revising historical myths, censoring narratives, and promoting strategic deception to support its efforts. The Russian government has invoked prominent collective memories (to include the history of the Nazi occupation, the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kosovo crisis, and many more) to justify the rejection of liberal internationalism. The Kremlin has offered alternatives to a rules-based international order that focus on great power spheres of influence. How has the Kremlin used strategic deception to advance its foreign and security policy and what are the implications such strategic deception has for future generations of Russians? How does Russia’s vision of international order trickle down to its more recent foreign policy actions, namely the war in Ukraine? How has Moscow utilized collective memories of the Nazi occupation to justify its own authoritarianism and expansionism and how is the Russian population responding to such authoritarianism through pushing the boundaries of censorship on Telegram? This panel will address the multiple angles that shed the light on these questions as we offer perspectives on how Russia is shaping and preserving its narratives regarding international order.

Sub Unit

• International Relations, Security Studies, Foreign Policy

Chair

• Elena Pokalova, National Defense U

Papers

• The Origins of Russia’s Vision of International Order - Elena Pokalova, National Defense U

• The Use and Abuse of German Classical Geopolitics in Modern Russia - Peter Eltsov, National Defense U

• Telegramming Russia’s War: On the Functions and Limits of Permissible Criticisms of Moscow’s War Effort - Mariya Y Omelicheva, National Defense U

Discussant

• Adam N. Stulberg, Georgia Institute of Technology