Abstract
Normative Basis of the Russian Foreign Policy Discourse durıng the Putin Period: The “Sovereign Democracy” Discourse
Many important changes were to be observed in the Russian Federation’s foreign policy in the period starting with the collapse of the Soviet Union especially since 2000’s with the Putin’s coming to power; those changes are mentioned as “Putinism”. Although the Russian foreign policy is still defined as pragmatic during the Putin’s rule period, it is ideologically constructed on the basis of the concept of “Sovereign Democracy” that is a new page in the post-Soviet identity construction process evolving from Antlantisisme to Eurasianisme. The intellectual debates on the “Sovereign Democracy” are introduced in the Russian foreign policy discourse essentially through the Russian Federation Foreign Policy Concept. The concept constitutes in the same time the source of loyalty of the Russian reelpolitik towards the West especially the USA and of the Russian anti-globalist policies.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the intellectual, normative an conceptual dimensions of the “Sovereign Democracy” phenomena that could serve to conceive on the one hand the foreign policy practice of the Russian Federation and on the other hand its dialectical relationships with the West in the circumstances of globalization. The critical discourse analysis of the “Sovereign Democracy” could allow us to better understand the current state in the Russian foreign policy’s identity construction process.
We will refer sometimes to the Russian reelpolitik in our study but the validity of this discourse will not be verified by the praxis. In this respect our research will be limited to the recent construction of the Russian foreign policy identity through the “Sovereign Democracy” discourse during the Putin’s rule period.
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Keywords
Russian foreign policy, Putinism, identity, sovereign democracy, critical discourse analysis
