Representations and foreign policy: Japan in Russia's foreign policy discourse, 2011-2019

Abstract

This master's thesis aims to expose the conditions of possibility of the Russo-Japanese rapprochement of 2012-19, which happened against the backdrop of Russia’s worsening relations with Japan's ally, the US, and the broader Western collectivity, part of which Japan could be regarded as. Based on the theoretical framework of poststructuralist discourse analysis, investigating Russia’s official and think tank (semi-official) foreign policy discourse during this period, this study identifies the representations of Japan that enabled Russia to pursue the rapprochement and assembles them into two broader discourses. It is revealed that the rapprochement with Japan was enabled by its dual representation as both an actor moving towards greater independence from the US, thus cementing its independent and influential position in the Asia-Pacific as well as globally; and as a pragmatic, better Western country with intimate relations with the US and Europe. These two discourses, as well as separate representations of Japan as an economic powerhouse and a WWII loser, were found to be largely in line with Russia’s broader foreign policy discourses of greatpowerness and multipolarity, meaning that the rapprochement with Japan could be considered as stemming from Russia’s central identity of a great power as well as a means to reinforce it. The analysis also suggests that there is a clear need for further poststructuralist research on Russo-Japanese relations since it, as this thesis shows, provides a richer and more nuanced understanding of not only of said relations, but Russian foreign policy more generally.