Stigma Dynamics: Russia and the Crisis of Liberal Ordering

Abstract

Abstract The concepts of stigma and stigmatization have recently made inroads into IR. However, scholarship on stigmatization has primarily focused on discrete instances of stigmatization and stigma management for the purposes of comparison. Less has been written about how the dynamics of stigmatization processes can alter over time as actors change stigma-management tactics and stigmatization varies in intensity, and the effect this may have on social norms. To that end, this article introduces a distinction between direct and diffuse forms of stigmatization that, when combined with different forms of stigma management, lead to changes in stigma dynamics over time. It applies this distinction to Russian stigma management vis-à-vis liberal international order, specifically the norms of democracy and human rights that constitute a “normal” for states to aspire to, any deviance from which requires stigma management. By outlining the interactive process of Russia's stigma management in relation to these norms since the end of the Cold War, and the degrees of direct and diffuse stigmatization of Russia by the norms’ promoters, the article also seeks to make a contribution to work on the crisis of liberal international order, aligning itself with contributions focused on the co-constitution of order through processes of ordering. The article proposes that stigmatization is a constitutive mechanism of liberal ordering and that some of the explanation for the supposed crisis of liberal order is the alteration of international stigma dynamics.