I have seen many a realist take on #IR Twitter when it comes to Russia's war against Ukraine. I think that there is one author that can explain it better. It's Foucault. A thread.

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I have seen many a realist take on #IR Twitter when it comes to Russia's war against Ukraine. I think that there is one author that can explain it better.

It's Foucault. A thread.

It's not Discipline and Punish or Madness and Civilisation. It's Foucault's concept of pastorate that can help analyze power relations in authoritarian contexts, as it takes into consideration different ways authoritarian system manifests itself.

There are 4 main characteristics that define pastoral power:
--- it is not exercised over a territory. It is a flock, not land;
--- it is a beneficent power, “power of care” toward salvation;
--- it is an individualizing power;
--- it is a dutiful and devotional power.

How does it work in the Russian context?

First, you need references to transborder sovereignty (flock, not land!)
Second, you need to securitise the hell out of everything
Third, you need the Pastor to be directly involved
Fourth, you need to stress the Pastor's masculinity

Transborder sovereignty: take the concept of "The Russian World". All Russian speakers wherever they are supposed to be protected, hence all of the Putin's military incursions in the past 20 years. Hence, the attempt peddle the "genocide of Russians in Ukraine" narrative

Securitisation: everything is a threat. Gay people. Feminists. Foreign people. American chicken. Georgian soda. Ukrainian chocolate. Moldovan wine. Norwegian child services.

(There is a law attached to every single one of those examples)

Putin's direct involvement is infamous. If you ever watched a Direct Line with Putin or his press conferences you would now the bi-annual spectacle of almighty Putin fixing a bridge or garbage disposal in a depressed and depopulated village. Cue happy subjects.

Masculinity is the easiest one. The horse-riding, the half-naked photographs, all the Gayropa discourse - all serves to represent Putin as this dude that all women want. If you have a strong stomach, watch a song from his 2018 re-election campaign

www.youtube.com/watch?v=95VTlKr6pZs

How does it apply to the invasion of Ukraine? The transborder sovereignty is the most blatant part, where Putin and his cronies went as far as denying Ukrainian statehood and nationhood altogether. Infamously, they attribute it to a historical mistake and deny Ukrainian agency

Securitisation process was a long time coming and in the case of Ukraine there was a lot of rhetoric about saving Russian-speakers/Russian culture etc from mythical Nazis in power. It did work in 2014: around 80% of the Russian population approved of Crimea annexation.

In an authoritarian system of power, it's not unusual that the leader has almost sole control. It was exemplified by the way the decision to invade Ukraine happened in February 2022: even Putin's own propaganda was pushing a completely different narrative before Feb 24th

Finally, the dutiful aspect. Veteran Russia watchers remember the Putin crab gif that comes from his phrase that he works "as a slave on galleys" (kak rab na galerah)

In case of Ukraine (and the world, frankly) Putin's entourage is very much concerned that he is "the real man" compared with anyone else. Hence the jokes about Zelensky shaving his chest, Europe having "non-traditional energy" or racist jokes about Obama

Not to mention the disgusting comment he made to Macron about the Minsk agreements ("like it or not, you have to take it, my beauty" is a reference to rape Putin made days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine)

Here is what I wrote in 2015:

So, don't tell me #Russia scholars didn't warn you. End of thread.

P.S. the undated version of the article this thread is based on is here:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0304375417745153?casa_token=eAuDAiX4tpkAAAAA:1-yvWgHxBgK8i_zFZQD...

*un-gated*

argh

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