Goodbye, 2022! I believe many people will feel relief that 2022 is over. What a year it has been. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected us all, so many lives were lost, and too many people had to uproot their lives fleeing the war. For me, 2022 will be remembered as the year when Russia finally delivered on its promises to defend the Motherland against the West, starting a long bloody war against a former friend, the war that no one expected to last that long. As someone researching and writing about Russia’s foreign policy ambitions and actions for over ten years, I was extremely sad to see one of the worst-case scenarios of Russia proving itself as a superpower coming to life. Even though a conflict has been on the cards for a while, I was hoping that reason would have triumphed over anti-West propaganda and hatred for the Other, but alas, the hatred and perceived threats prevailed.
What will 2023 bring? I hope for an end to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, to see the war stop, and for Ukraine to start rebuilding the country. I believe whether Russia would get to keep Crimea will remain one of the most important questions regarding possible peace negotiations. Unfortunately, I do not see Russia reversing its anti-West propaganda, as the Kremlin has invested too much time and money to create a particularly hostile environment for any opinion that the authorities do not approve. The propaganda and the anti-West attitude will continue producing more layers of meaning to support the image of Russia as a superpower for the Russian audience. It is already possible to see that the invasion of Ukraine has caused many former Soviet republics that were mostly pro-Russia to try to distance themselves from the war that the Kremlin started and the following anti-West and anti-Nato foreign policy. I expect this trend to continue and we might witness the birth of new friendships and alliances.
As far as my professional plans for 2023 go, first, I want to find a publisher for my book, which argues that Russia’s foreign policy is dependent on securitisation of external threats, especially the threat of terrorism. I argue that since the Chechen-Russian conflicts, the Kremlin has been using the threat of terrorism as the justification for its domestic, regional, and foreign policy interventions. The book demonstrates how terrorism has been utilised by the Kremlin to advance Russia’s expansionist mindset via analysing the Kremlin’s rhetoric from the securitisation theory perspective. It is argued that the issue of terrorism has been intentionally raised to the level of an existential threat for the Kremlin to override normal political process, as the book explores a range of political actors and their actions on the examples of Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine, concluding that the regime has created a particular pattern of securitisation rhetoric that is now ingrained in the political fabric of Russia and is almost impregnable for the outside world.
Second, there are a few projects that should come to fruition in 2023. A few book chapters and papers are close to being published, which is exciting to see. It is truly unfortunate that publishing in academia takes so long. But stay tuned – I will share updates. Third, I plan to devote more time to Unlimited Politics – it means more blog posts with analysis and hopefully, I will be able to start a series on academic writing in Political Science that I have been planning to do.
Thank you for reading me in 2022, I am very happy to have you here. Happy New Year!
Cheers!