Russian Politics and Response to Globalization

Lada V. Kochtcheeva

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030391447
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030391454
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book analyzes the nature of Russia's involvement with globalization. To date, Russia has mainly followed a course of selective openness governed by an increasingly strong state pursuing self-determination and its own vision of strategic objectives and forms of cooperation, rather than the projected reproduction of global convergence. It is also a country that is believed to be finding a new place and position for itself in the evolving global order, where European and American reflections shape the treatment of contemporary questions concerning Russia's status in the world. The book highlights the problems and conflicts associated with political developments, democratization, economic reforms, and innovation, as well as societal perceptions and national identity formation. The world is shifting, with Russia developing its own vision of global politics and cultivating a pragmatic strategy based on national interest, one that supports globalization where necessary and opposes it where conflicts of interest and values are inevitable.

© The Author(s) 2020

L. V. KochtcheevaRussian Politics and Response to Globalizationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39145-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. The Forces of Globalization

Lada V. Kochtcheeva¹

(1)

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Lada V. Kochtcheeva

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

What explains the nature of domestic responses to globalization? How do the forces of globalization challenge domestic processes in politics, economy, and society? The opening of economic borders , extensive travel and communications, expanding political and cultural relationships, the information revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union’s socialist model of development, and the progression of capitalism and democratic principles in Russia, post-Soviet states, and beyond created the conviction that the world was becoming an integrated and shared space. At the turn of the twenty-first century, scholars, politicians, economic experts, and the general public challenged the usual notions that domestic and foreign policy, as well as local activities and global trends were separate or independent. The world did not wait long, however, for the character of globalization to be called into question by uneven interdependence, increasing trends toward greater state sovereignty, unequal economic development, and cultural resistance. The mode of globalization was also changing, creating a more volatile global environment and highly various domestic responses to global forces that are sometimes unpredictable and unstable. The academic literature addressed these challenges in a variety of accounts about the impacts of globalization on politics, economy, and culture, emphasizing that it is multifaceted and that it influences societies in numerous ways (e.g., Barber 1995; Berger and Huntington 2002; Stiglitz 2002; Lechner and Boli 2004; Sassen 2008; Sparke 2013; Hebron and Stack 2017). Globalization has been discussed mainly in reference to Western societies and the Rest, including China, India, and other emerging economies (e.g., Friedman 2007; Jaqcues 2009; Turner and Khondker 2010; Kupchan 2012; Pierre 2013). The mainstream literature on globalization, however, has left Russia out and has produced less than a handful of focused analyses of the effects of globalization in this major world player (see McCann 2004; Blum 2008; Wilhelmsen and Rowe 2011). Russia first assumed an important role in the debates on neoliberal transition (e.g., Gustafson 1999; Aslund and Olcott 1999; Reddaway and Glinsky 2001; Kuchins 2002). Scholars also discussed the country’s identity and culture (e.g., Pilkington 2002; Neumann 1996, 2017). Later the phenomenon of Vladimir Putin, foreign policy, and the West/US—Russia relations took the center stage of the debates (e.g., Trenin 2002; Shevtsova 2005; Herspring 2003, 2007; Worth 2005; Legvold 2007; Tsygankov 2006, 2018; Clunan 2009; Laruelle 2012; Sakwa 2014, 2017).

This book analyzes the nature of Russia’s involvement with globalization. Doing so challenges perspectives that do not view domestic politics and foreign policy as arenas of reaction to the global forces. This book addresses Russia as a country that is believed to be in search of forging a new place and position for itself in the evolving global order. The world is shifting with Russia developing its own vision of global politics and cultivating a pragmatic strategy, based on national interest, that aligns with this vision, supporting globalization where necessary, disapproving of it where conflict of interest and values is inevitable. The book demonstrates that in such a dynamic environment, the imperative to understand Russian interests, actions, and, no less importantly, its society, is as great as it has ever been. The urgency of this research agenda is also highlighted by the concurrence of contemporary trends toward higher interdependency and challenges that countries produce resisting the uniformity of responses to globalization to promote self-determination and asserting national path of development.

Explaining Russia’s response to globalization is important in its own right and also because a more accurate analysis of the diverse aspects of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy can help resolve several puzzles of its distinctive behavior. The book argues that Russia’s adaptation to the forces of globalization, in essence Russia’s search for its place and role in the globalizing world, takes the form of a lengthy and controversial adjustment to the rapidly changing external environment in the context of domestic preferences and struggles.

The argument has four major points. First, Russia’s goal of sovereign domestic development and promotion of its own vision of the global order became stronger over time, with the concept of strong sovereignty supported by a domestically projected path of development and protection of internal values. Russia has transformed itself from a devoted follower of the West in the 1990s to its critic, actively pursuing expansion of its influence in global decision-making, institutions, markets, and values, while at the same time trying to modify these arrangements to its benefit. Second, while Russia’s position in a globalizing world started with the uncomfortable reality of its geopolitical retreat and a lack of participation in creating the architecture of globalization, the country was never a mere receiver of Western or international impulses. Over the course of history, Russia has projected with varying degrees of success the image of a world power. As such, Russia also presents an interesting theoretical and empirical case, and this book argues that Russia should be seen as both contributing and reactive to globalization, a country laying between adaptation to and confrontation with the current global world order. Such understanding of Russia leads to important and much broader questions about the nature of state behavior, its foreign policy performance and its ability to adjust and respond to challenges. Does Russia’s behavior reflect the struggles of transitional dynamics prompted by the transformation of the global system? Or, does it display an enduring national behavior, preserving its typical characteristics in any historical setting? Answering these critical questions allows for a valuable contribution to the debates on the nature, basis, and prospects of the relationships between states in the global world.

Third, although Russia is attempting to strengthen its political and economic positions by turning east, it is a country that balances its standing and image between the influences of the so-called architects of globalization, claiming European identity and entertaining some aspects of the US economic development. European and American reflections to a large degree shape the treatment of the contemporary questions of Russia’s status in the world. Analyzing the influence of these two trends on Russia separately helps achieve a more complete and nuanced understanding of globalization. Fourth, Russia’s engagement with globalization provides a new frame for interpreting not only Russia’s position in the world, but also the origins of the present crisis in the relations between Russia and the West. Using only Western points of reference may lead to a failure in understanding the complex and often ambiguous landscape of Russia’s strengths and weaknesses, perceptions and conducts, and history and identity. Geopolitically, Russia is a great power with the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It is the largest country in the world with an enormous wealth of natural resources, and growing military capability, especially nuclear weapons. A major energy supplier to the European Union, it is also an active player in different regions of the world, including Asia and the Arctic. And through its participation in overarching global issues, ranging from dealing with terrorism and conflict management to energy security and the architecture of the global world order, Russia “makes its own proud way in regional and world affairs” (Colton 2016, p. 9), being a partner or competitor to the West by influencing the trajectory of the evolution of broader global affairs. Rather than merely viewing Russia as a country that is adapting to the global forces by using them to stimulate domestic growth and manage the accompanying threats of vulnerability, Russia often dictates the terms on which external actors can engage with it and that it even shapes the rules of the international order emphasizing the concept of new world politics based on the reinstatement of a multipolar international political system. Overall, Russia’s path of adaptation has mainly followed a course of selective and cautious receptiveness in a pursuit of national interests, rather than continuing to be fully responsive to Western economic and political influences .

Conceptualizing Globalization

To understand Russia’s response requires first investigating the forces it is reacting to. Over the past several decades, globalization has acquired multiple definitions, many of them referring to the realization of extensive linkages and intensified interconnectedness. Scholars emphasize the enlargement of geographical scope and increasing interaction between world’s civilizations, the coming of a new postmodern epoch, interdependencies that link the fates of people, the new functional reality of the global economic integration, the growing transformation in the magnitude of human social relations, cultural integration, new system of global regulation and new forms of sovereignty, crystallization of institutions into a comprehensive world society, and the shrinking of the world (Modelski 1972; Albrow 1996; Giddens 1990, 1998, 2002; Ohmae 1994; Friedman 1999; S...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. The Forces of Globalization
• 2. Russia at Crossroads
• 3. Political Reaction and Global Pressures
• 4. Economic Engagement and Transformation
• 5. Cultural Impact and Societal Responses
• 6. Russia’s Response to Globalization
• Back Matter