Author:

Abstract

This thesis contends that previous attempts to theorise Russian foreign policy have been splintered by their failure to conceptualise the nuances of the Russian case, as a nation caught on the periphery of both Europe and Asia. These theoretical disparities stem from the inability of Western-oriented IR to transgress clear-cut boundaries, a discrepancy most profound in an analysis of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Thus, in an attempt to resolve these deficits, this study argues that understanding Russian foreign policy can be greatly nuanced by the critical guise of a postcolonial lens, as a theory sensitive to structurally constructed systems of power and their impact on the selection of foreign policy choices available to international actors. This will be explored in conjunction with the theoretical stronghold of constructivism, whereby identity and foreign policy are regarded as intimately linked and mutually constitutive processes. This study will then progress to yield these arguments to identify and analyse instances whereby President Putin engages in a practise of ‘mimicking’ of the West, of which this study will argue is an effective strategy of resistance to challenge their peripheral subordination in the eyes of their Eurocentric superiors. Identification of this is crucial to understand the oxymoronic and contradictory nature of Putin’s foreign policy. However, this dissertation will ultimately conclude that these strategies, in engaging in an endless game of catch-up with the West, will inevitably fall-short. This dissertation seeks to offer explanations as to why this is the case.

Keywords: Postcolonial, Russia, EU, Putin, Crimea, Foreign Policy, Identity

How to Cite: Vallance, H., 2020. The Double Headed Eagle: Looking East, Looking West. A Postcolonial Analysis of Russia’s relations vis-à-vis the EU. LSE Undergraduate Political Review, 3(1).