Conspiracy Narratives as a Mode of Engagement in International Politics: The Case of the 2008 Russo‐Georgian War

Abstract

With the decline in traditional forms of structured ideological contestation in the post‐Cold War era, the role of conspiracy theories as a form of political discourse has been accentuated. The burgeoning literature on the subjects reflects the declining symbolic efficiency of the metanarratives of modernity. There is a long tradition of conspiracy theories in Russia, which has been intensified in recent years as a result of the tribulations following the collapse of communism. Cognate forms of conspiracy narratives represent broader social constructions of reality, and structure representations of national identity. In the Russo‐Georgian War of August 2008 various conspiracy narratives have taken the place of mythic representations, and the conflict on the battlefield has been accompanied by the clash of several major narratives. A similar process was firmly at work in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. In the case of the Caucasus, three main conspiracy theories, with endless subplots and details, have shaped narratives of events: A Russian version, a Georgian one, and a dominant Western one. The three intersect at various points, but differ in both detail and substance. The three reflect central paradigms of contemporary international politics, and thus the war has exposed the deeper substrata of geopolitical visions and a nascent revival of bloc politics.