Rethinking the relations between identity and foreign policy: analysing Russia’s foreign policy discourse towards China
Date
2016
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
This master’s thesis aims to reconstruct Russian identity discourse related to its foreign
policy towards China. Taking the timeline surrounding the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea
(2010-2016), this thesis was based on the background of the rising concept of “pivot to
Asia/East”. Using China as the main actor in Russia’s Asian policy, this thesis tries to
answer the questions regarding the construction of Russia’s identity discourse towards
China and whether the changing Russian policy after Crimea initiate any changing
identity. Based on the poststructuralist approach in foreign policy analysis and the
methods of discourse analysis as offered by Campbell (1990), Waever (2002), and
Hansen (2006), this thesis offers an alternative understanding of the (re)construction of
the identity structure and the intricate relationship between identity and foreign policy.
In using the Hansen’s methods of discourse analysis, this thesis analyses official
speeches and interviews as part of the 1st model of poststructuralist discourse analysis,
and both academic articles and opinions as part of the 2nd model. This thesis finds
several patterns of discursive identity structure. Firstly, concurring with Waever’s
argument, this thesis finds that existing discursive structure created limitations to the
possibility of any changes in Russia’s identity/policy before Crimea. The crisis in
Ukraine did provide some concrete policy changes, but these changes at the outmost
layer of discursive structure were unable to drastically change the identity discourse in
Russia related to China in the post-Crimean timeframe. The effect of this limitation was
the stagnation of concrete policy switch towards China. From those findings, two
important theoretical contributions could be noted. These findings show that there was
the aspect of timeframe which poststructuralist theory of identity/foreign policy change
should take into considerations when analyzing the probability of change or nonchange.
However, this issue did not diminish the usefulness of poststructuralist
approach in deepening the understanding of identity construction and its relations with
foreign policy.