When the Internal and External Collide: A Social Constructivist Reading of Russia's Security Policy

Abstract

This study provides a social constructivist reading of Russia's security policy under President Vladimir Putin, by investigating the relationship between the internal and the external security spheres and state identity through the prism of Russia's narrative on the fight against terrorism. Drawing on social constructivist theories of identity, security and narratives, it argues that a change occurred in the Putin regime's conceptualisation of Russian state identity: from an initially weak state which prioritised internal security threats and the fight against terrorism, to a strong state, whose main security ‘Other’ was the West, by the end of Putin's presidency. This resulted in less priority being given to the terrorism issue in the official discourse and the widening of the notion of ‘threat’ and ‘terrorism’, in line with a developing security narrative in both internal and external spheres.