Russia’s “Modern” Foreign Policy Tools in Crimea and Syria

Abstract

Many Western observers declare “a new Cold War” with Russia or point at the autocratic character of the Russian regime in order to explain Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its military intervention in Syria. In contrast, this chapter investigates Russia’s foreign policy along three key types of power that modernity has produced—sovereignty, reason of state and biopolitics. It does not simply seek to explain the reasons underlying Russia’s foreign policy conduct, but aims to analyse its formal mechanisms, which resemble those of other modern great powers. The main argument of the chapter is that Russia’s military interventions in Crimea and Syria do not represent a break with the previously professed principles of Russian foreign policy. Rather, Russia has adopted the entire repertoire of devices, means or mechanisms available to modern states: all the tools of sovereignty, reason of state and biopolitics remain present in both domestic and foreign policy.