Richard Sakwa
Biographic Data
| ID | 524107 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Sakwa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | Sakwa |
| SIGNATURE | SAKWA R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kent |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6678-8820 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 114 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 408 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 112 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Power Transition, Cold War II and International Politics
The onset of multipolarity is accompanied by a number of cross-cutting trends. First, the consolidation of elements of modified bipolarity in the form of the Sino-American great power dyad. Second, the emergence of a range of ‘legacy’ great powers, including Germany, France, the UK and Japan, with Russia struggling to retain its status as a great power while fearing relegation to legacy status. Third, the revival of cold war entails the restorati…
Crisis of the International System and International Politics
Despite the Cold War and numerous hot wars, there is an essential continuity in the post-war period based on the Charter International System created in 1945. The United Nations and the associated declarations, organizations and normative orientations remain the framework for the conduct of international relations. At the level of international politics, orders are created in which states contend and hegemonic formations take shape. The Soviet-le…
The Perils of Democratism
The article examines an aspect of the meta-theoretical context of the renewed confrontation between the political West and Russia. A distinction is drawn between democratism, the purposive instrumentalization of democracy agendas in great power conflict, and democracy as a responsive, reflexive and participatory mechanism of popular control over government. In the post-Cold War era this gave rise to inter-democracy, the combination of NATO and th…
The end of endism
Civilizations, Autonomy, and War
The Ukraine war since February 2022 has exposed stark cleavages in international politics. The end of history long ago ended, and with it the conviction that Western civilization and its distinctive form of modernity would become universal.1 The clash of civilizations, in the model outlined by Samuel Huntington, has also been shown to be misdirected, although not entirely misguided.2 There is a struggle between civilizations, but the line is draw…
The Russia Scare
Pandemic and New Division of the World
COVID-19 pandemic is possibly the most serious challenge to the humanity since the end of World War II. Surprisingly, this threat did not unite countries of different ideological blocks. The ideological division of the world only exaggerated in the COVID-19 times. Not even common programmes of mutual healthcare assistance were elaborated. Instead, Russia, the East (mainly China) and the West deepened their discrepancies in international relations…
Sad delusions
The end of the Cold War was accompanied by the idea that the fall of the Berlin Wall represented the beginning of the unification of Europe. Mikhail Gorbachev talked in terms of a “Common European Home,” an idea that continues in the guise of the project for a “Greater Europe.” However, right from the start, the transformative idea of Greater Europe was countered by the notion of “Europe whole and free,” whose fundamental dynamic was the enlargem…
Introduction
Deception
Heterarchy
Russian governance is a dynamic combination of horizontal and vertical factors. Heterarchy suggests that elements of an organization are not necessarily hierarchical (not ranked), and that they have the potential to be ranked in a number of different ways. Three levels to the system are identified: the macro (where the four major ideological-interest groups of Russian modernity are located); the meso (encompassing the various corporate, regional,…
Is Putin an Ism
The Putin phenomenon represents a complex and dynamic interaction between the character of the man, his policies and leadership style. After over two decades in office, we can ask whether there is such a thing as ‘Putinism’, and if so, what are its main features? What are the criteria to be considered an ‘ism’? At the minimum, it requires some sort of ‘grand strategy’ that underpins policy in domestic and foreign policy, and which unites the two.…
The new era of confrontation
The annual reports published by Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) on Russia and the state of world affairs act like the rings on a tree, measuring changes over time by offering a snapshot of a particular instant. This report is no different but comes at a time that could scarcely be more unlike earlier years. The Covid-19 pandemic has acted like a savage beam of light, illuminating processes that were apparent yet not…
Victimhood Olympics
In January 2020, the Russian-language bimonthly “Russia in Global Affairs” published an article on “memory politics” and related conflicts, following a roundtable hosted by the magazine (Rossiya, 2020). To our amazement, the discussion caused a very keen reaction, especially in Europe. Our modest publication was immediately dubbed as nearly a forge of Kremlin ideas regarding “memory wars,” which, of course, is flattering, but, alas, is not true. …
Greater Russia
Putin Paradox
Vladimir Putin has emerged as one of the key leaders of the twenty-first century. However, he is also recognized as one of the most divisive. Abroad, his assertion of Russia's interests and critique of the western-dominated international system has brought him into conflict with Atlantic powers. Within Russia, he has balanced various factions within the elite intelligentsia alongside the wider support of Russian society
As a Mimetic Revolution
Various terms have been used to describe the momentous events of 1989, including Jürgen Habermas's 'rectifying revolution,' and my own notion of 1989 as a type of 'anti-revolution': repudiating not only what had come before, but also denying the political logic of communist power, as well as the emancipatory potential of revolutionary socialism in its entirety. In the event, while the negative agenda of 1989 has been fulfilled, it failed in the e…
Russian Neo-Revisionism
A revisionist state would seek to challenge the existing balance of power in the system and threaten the foundations of the system itself. This does not apply to contemporary Russia. It seeks to enhance its status within the existing framework of international society. Russian neo-revisionism does not attempt to create new rules or to advance an alternative model of the international system but to ensure the universal and consistent application o…
The International System and Models of Global Order
The international system is presented as a three-story construct, with the international governance institutions at the top, states in the middle, and civil and political society and social movements at the bottom. Within this construct, four types of globalism contend for hegemony today: the liberal international order; transformative (revolutionary) internationalism; mercantilist nationalism; and conservative (or sovereign) internationalism. Ea…
One Europe or None? Monism, Involution and Relations with Russia
The crisis in relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) is part of the broader breakdown of the post-Cold War security order. This commentary focuses on structural interpretation and identifies four interlinked processes shaping the crisis: tension between the logic of the enlargement and transformation; a dynamic of involution and resistance; the problem of monism, whereby the expanding self is unable adequately to engage with the un-…
Russia's Long Anti-Revolution of Constitutionalism
The hundredth anniversary of the 1917 revolutions was a strangely muted affair in Russia. Once considered one of the great turning points in human history, the Great October Socialist Revolution (to use Soviet parlance) is now considered at best an irrelevance, and at worst a spectacular example of an ill-conceived and brutally executed social experiment. This has given rise to one of the consistent foundational positions of Putinism, the repudia…
The End of the Revolution
An exploration of the application of Rene Girard's mimetic theory to contemporary new Cold War politics and international relations, suggesting a typology of political behaviours. The current explosion in mimetic violence is the ground for the Second Cold war. The article explores alternative forms of interactions, called political dialogism, which may offer a way out of the intensification of axiological violence. Instead of the political practi…
Russia Against the Rest
In this book Richard Sakwa provides a new analysis of the end of the Cold War and the subsequent failure to create a comprehensive and inclusive peace order in Europe. The end of the Cold War did not create a sustainable peace system. Instead, for a quarter of a century a 'cold peace' reflected the tension between cooperative and competitive behaviour. None of the fundamental problems of European security were resolved, and tensions accumulated. …
Political Trials in Theory and History
U.S.-Russian Relations in the Trump Era
The Dual State in Russia
Russia today is characterized by two competing political orders. The first is the constitutional state, regulated by law and enshrining the normative values of the democratic movement of the late Soviet period and contemporary liberal democracies, populated by political parties, parliament, and representative movements and regulated by electoral and associated laws. The second is the administrative regime, which has emerged as a tutelary order st…
The Commonwealth of Independent States, 1991-1998
Issues discussed concern the management of Russia's Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), focusing on the unstable interaction between the member states with regards to economic policies. Topics addressed include trade between the countries, military and security concerns, and political obstacles to integration
Russia's Identity
Putin's Leadership
RIVEN WITH CONTRADICTIONS, and on the basis of these contradictions very different evaluations of his presidency are possible.The contradictions themselves became a source of Putin's power.They allowed him to act in several different political and discursive spheres at the same time, with a degree of credibility in each, although their genuine authenticity was questioned.Arriving into the presidency in 2000 Putin declared his goal as the 'dictato…
Modernisation, neo-modernisation, and comparative democratisation in Russia
There has long been a debate over whether development is a prerequisite for democracy, and by the same token, whether democracy is a precondition for development. This debate is part of the larger literature examining problems of ‘transition’, a term which is at best no more than a code word for the processes shaping accelerated and conscious transformation of a society from one type of social order to another. For some three decades, the field o…
The Russian elections of December 1993
THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS of 12 December 1993 were the first held under the aegis of the reconstituted Russian Federation, and the first democratic direct national elections to be held in peacetime in Russian history. They were intended to put the final nail in the coffin of communism and set Russia on the path of irreversible democratic development. Held in the wake of the dissolution on 21 September of the old Russian legislature chaired by Ruslan…
The 2003 – 2004 Russian Elections and Prospects for Democracy
This is a detailed analysis of the parliamentary (State Duma) elections of December 2003 and the presidential election of March 2004. For the first, the political programmes of the parties are analysed, followed by an examination of the election process itself, the results, reports of monitors, assessment of fraud, and the impact on the legislature. The results of the presidential elections were predictable, but the results are analysed in detail…
The cold peace
In 1989–1991 the geo-ideological contestation between two blocs was swept away, together with the ideology of civil war and its concomitant Cold War played out on the larger stage. Paradoxically, while the domestic sources of Cold War confrontation have been transcended, its external manifestations remain in the form of a ‘legacy’ geopolitical contest between the dominant hegemonic power (the United States) and a number of potential rising great …
Russia and Europe
Russia’s traditionally ambivalent relationship to ‘Europe’ is now assuming new forms. Although the country since 1991 has formally adopted the panoply of Western democratic norms, their implementation is impeded by both practical and political forms of resistance to the universalism proclaimed by its erstwhile Cold War protagonists. The unstable relationship between Russia and various levels of international society has given rise to a type of ‘c…
The death of Europe? Continental fates after Ukraine
The unravelling of the post-Cold War security order in Europe was both cause and consequence of the crisis in Ukraine. The crisis was a symptom of the three-fold failure to achieve the aspirations to create a ‘Europe whole and free’ enunciated by the Charter of Paris in 1990, the drift in the European Union's behaviour from normative to geopolitical concerns, and the failure to institutionalize some form of pan-continental unity. The structural f…
Party and power
The reasons for the under-development of the Russian party system remain contested, yet significant changes took place in the 2000s. The system became more regulated and streamlined. There were far fewer parties, but the rights of those that survived were consolidated. Above all, the regime identified itself with a single major party, United Russia, although the relationship between the regime and the party was problematical. Russia practises a h…
The regime system in Russia
The Soviet Collapse
Over two decades have passed since the dissolution of the communist system and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 yet there is still no consensus over the causes and consequences of these epochal (and distinct) events. As for the causes, it is easy to assume that the fall was ‘over-determined’, with an endless array of factors. It behoves the scholar to try to establish a hierarchy of causality, which is itself a methodological exerci…
New Cold War' or twenty years' crisis? Russia and international politics
President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy can be characterized as a ‘new realism’, repudiating some of the exaggerated ambitions of Yevgeny Primakov's tenure as foreign minister in the late 1990s while asserting Russia's distinctive identity in world politics. Rather than acting as a classic ‘balancing’ power prescribed by classic realist theory as the response to the hegemonic power of a single state, Russia under Putin tended to ‘bandwagon’ and…
Left or right? The CPRF and the problem of democratic consolidation in Russia
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) is the largest of the successor organizations to the CPSU and, paradoxically, one of the leading conservative parties. The party's organizational development reflects the larger problem of party formation in Russia but has distinctive features of its own. The CPRF's programmatic evolution is symptomatic of the larger issue of post‐communist ideological confusion. Finally, the CPRF's contributio…
Heterarchy
Russian governance is a dynamic combination of horizontal and vertical factors. Heterarchy suggests that elements of an organization are not necessarily hierarchical (not ranked), and that they have the potential to be ranked in a number of different ways. Three levels to the system are identified: the macro (where the four major ideological-interest groups of Russian modernity are located); the meso (encompassing the various corporate, regional,…
Conspiracy Narratives as a Mode of Engagement in International Politics
With the decline in traditional forms of structured ideological contestation in the post-Cold War era, the role of conspiracy theories as a form of political discourse has been accentuated. The burgeoning literature on the subjects reflects the declining symbolic efficiency of the metanarratives of modernity. There is a long tradition of conspiracy theories in Russia, which has been intensified in recent years as a result of the tribulations foll…
Questioning Control and Contestation in Late Putinite Russia
Notes1 'Navalny "Oligarch Project"—Yabloko Leader', Interfax, 14 December 2013, available at: http://russialist.org/interfax-navalny-oligarchic-project-yabloko-leader/, accessed 15 December 2014.2 For his views, see Gudkov (Citation2013).3 Author's personal notes from the meeting.4 See Prozorov (Citation2014)
Christian democracy in Russia
Christian Democracy has emerged as one of the major currents in post-communist life. This article will examine the role of Christian Democracy in Russia, placing it in the broader context of European affairs and discussing the main programmatic points and the role of the movement in Russian politics. The paper will focus on the activities of the Russian Christian Democratic Movement (RCDM), by far the largest and most influential of the numerous …
Europe and the political
The political” represents a moment in which actors recognise autonomy and equality as constitutive values in the agonistic search for appropriate open-ended political outcomes. The tutelary, pedagogical and disciplinary practices of the depoliticised European Union (EU) undermine the foundations of equality in diplomatic and political engagement between continental actors. The relationship becomes axiological, where issues are deemed to have been…
New ‘dividing lines’ in Europe
The paper presents the materials of the special issue “Institutions, Networks and Trust in European–Russian relations” offering various interdisciplinary perspectives on EU–Russia relations. The positions of the authors of the special edition are analysed in the context of both Western and Russian literature on EU–Russia relations. This analysis is conducted within the framework of close to Constructivism “security community” approach that stress…
Putin and the Oligarchs
One Europe or None? Monism, Involution and Relations with Russia
The crisis in relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) is part of the broader breakdown of the post-Cold War security order. This commentary focuses on structural interpretation and identifies four interlinked processes shaping the crisis: tension between the logic of the enlargement and transformation; a dynamic of involution and resistance; the problem of monism, whereby the expanding self is unable adequately to engage with the un-…
How the Eurasian elites envisage the role of the EEU in global perspective
The development of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has been accompanied by intense ideological and political debates. Initially planned as the centrepiece of Vladimir Putin’s third presidential term, the project since his return to office in May 2012 became ensnared in broader global and regional contradictions. Formally launched on 1 January 2015 and now encompassing five members (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia), the EEU i…
The struggle for the constitution in Russia and the triumph of ethical individualism
The Commune State in Moscow in 1918
The first months of Soviet power raise important questions about the ideology of the transition to socialism and about the nature of Bolshevik power. The destruction of the old state apparatus was accompanied by vigorous institution building; the "red guard attack against capital" was balanced by the emergence of potentially powerful Soviet economic apparatus. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed in March 1918 was followed by a period of state capi…
Conference Discussion
Donald J. Raleigh, Revolution on the Volga: 1917 in Saratov. Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press, 1986
Soviet Politics in Perspective
Part I History 1. The Russian Legacy 2. The Creation of the Soviet State 3. Stalin and Stalinism 4. Khrushchev and Destalinisation 5. From Brezhnev to Gorbachev Part II Government 6. The Communist Party 7. The Structure of Power 8. Security and Justice 9. Local Government and Participation Part III Politics 10. Power and Policy-Making 11. Ideology and Authority 12. Class and Gender 13. From Dissent to Pluralism Part IV Policies 14. The Command Ec…
The perestroika of the party in 1921–22
Soviet Communists in Power. A Study of Moscow during the Civil War, 1918-1921
Commune Democracy and Gorbachev's Reforms
The process of democratic restructuring in the Soviet Union since 1986 can be understood in terms of a revival of the democratic ideal of a participatory and self-managing society. The concept of commune democracy espoused by Marx and Lenin, however, is problematical, not least because of ambiguities in its relationship to the state, the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the dirigisme of the party. Gorbachev's reforms are developing…
Ideology and rationality in the Soviet model
Gorbachev and perestroika, The Gorbachev phenomenon
Journal Article Gorbachev and perestroika, The Gorbachev phenomenon: a history of perestroika and Towards a more civil society? The USSR under Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev Get access Gorbachev and perestroika. Edited by Ronald J. Hilland Jan Ake Dellenbrant. Aldershot, Hants: Edward Elgar. 1989. 234pp. Index. (International Library of Studies in Communism.) £32.50. ISBN 1 85278 146 7.The Gorbachev phenomenon: a history of perestroika. By François…
The dialectic of change
New Directions in Soviet Social Thought
The essays in this volume illustrate the kind of expansionary logic that has characterized Soviet reformist thinking in the social sciences in the 1980s. The themes discussed show the wide-ranging and multidisciplinary nature of reformist currents in the Soviet Union
Gorbachev and perestroika
Journal Article Gorbachev and perestroika Get access Gorbachev and perestroika. Edited by Martin McCauley. London: Macmillan for School of Slavonic and East European Studies. 1990. 222pp. Index. (Studies in Russia and East Europe.) £35.00; ISBN 0 333 52594 9. £14.99; ISBN 0 333 52595 7. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 67, Issue 1…
Gorbachev's gamble
Journal Article Gorbachev's gamble: the 19th All-Union Party Conference Get access Gorbachev's gamble: the 19th All-Union Party Conference. Edited by Baruch A. Hazan. Boulder, CO: Westview. 1989. 485pp. Pb.: £27.50. ISBN 0 8133 7779 x. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 67, Issue 1, January 1991, Pages 179–180, https://doi.org/10.23…
The second socialist revolution
Journal Article The second socialist revolution: an alternative Soviet strategy Get access The second socialist revolution: an alternative Soviet strategy. By Tatyana Zaslavskaya. Trans. by Susan M. Davies with Jenny Warren. London: Tauris. 1990. 241pp. Index. (Second World Series.) £19.95. ISBN 1 85043 151 5. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Aff…
Christian democracy in Russia
Christian Democracy has emerged as one of the major currents in post-communist life. This article will examine the role of Christian Democracy in Russia, placing it in the broader context of European affairs and discussing the main programmatic points and the role of the movement in Russian politics. The paper will focus on the activities of the Russian Christian Democratic Movement (RCDM), by far the largest and most influential of the numerous …
Bolshevism of the Left and Right
Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Soviet power
Journal Article Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Soviet power Get access Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Soviet power. By John Miller. London: Macmillan with St Martin's Press, New York. 1993. 267pp. Index. Pb.: £13.99. ISBN 0 333 59194 1. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 69, Issue 3, July 1993, Page 609, https://doi.org/10.2307/…
Christian democracy and civil society in Russia
In the heady early days of party formation in Russia, following the modification of Article 6 of the USSR Constitution in March 1990, Christian Democracy promised to become one of the great social philosophies and political movements under postcommunism, positioned between, on the one hand, liberal individualist universalism, and, on the other, socialist collectivism. Rafael Caldera, the President of Venezuela, argued that
Toward the "Rule of Law" in Russia? Political and Legal Reform in the Transition Period
The contributors to this volume - all specialists on Soviet law and politics - offer a comprehensive examination of the effort to create a law-based state in the Gorbachev-era U.S.S.R., thus effecting a fundamental change in the relationship between the state and private groups and individuals. Gianmaria Ajani, Donald Barry, Harold Berman, Frances Foster-Simons, George Ginsburgs, John Hazard, Kathryn Hendley, Eugene Huskey, Dietrich Loeber, Peter…
Black hundred
Journal Article Black hundred: the rise of the extreme Right in Russia Get access Black hundred: the rise of the extreme Right in Russia. By Walter Laqueur. New York: HarperCollins. 1993. 317pp. Index. $27.50. ISBN 0 06 018336 5. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent at Canterbury Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 70, Issue 4, October 1994, Page 819, https://doi.org/10…
Red sunset
Journal Article Red sunset: the failure of Soviet politics Get access Red sunset: the failure of Soviet politics. By Philip G. Roeder. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1993. 317pp. Index. £42.50; ISBN 0 691 03306 4. Pb.: £12.95; ISBN 0 691 01942 8. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent at Canterbury Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 70, Issue 2, April 1994, P…
Book notes
Freedom in the World: Political Rights and Civil Liberties 1991–1992 by Freedom House Survey Team. New York: Freedom House, 1992. Pp.570; tables; ratings. £58.50 (hardback); £22.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 932 088 75 9 and 74 0 The Middle East and Problems of Democracy by Heather Deagan. Buckingham and Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press, 1993. Pp.152; index; bibliography. £37.50 (hardback); £12.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 335 and 15686 X Nation‐buildi…
Democratic change in Russia and Ukraine
The transitions in Russia and Ukraine since 1991 offer contrasting patterns of political and social reconstitution. Facing similar problems, Russia forced the pace and embarked on rapid economic and political reform whereas Ukraine sought a more gradual strategy. Neither country, however, has been able to avoid disintegratory pressures on the state and society disrupting the state and nation building endeavours. The challenge of creating new poli…
The Russian elections of December 1993
THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS of 12 December 1993 were the first held under the aegis of the reconstituted Russian Federation, and the first democratic direct national elections to be held in peacetime in Russian history. They were intended to put the final nail in the coffin of communism and set Russia on the path of irreversible democratic development. Held in the wake of the dissolution on 21 September of the old Russian legislature chaired by Ruslan…
The Russian elections of December 1993
THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS of 12 December 1993 were the first held under the aegis of the reconstituted Russian Federation, and the first democratic direct national elections to be held in peacetime in Russian history. They were intended to put the final nail in the coffin of communism and set Russia on the path of irreversible democratic development. Held in the wake of the dissolution on 21 September of the old Russian legislature chaired by Ruslan…
Legacies of the collapse of Marxism
Journal Article Legacies of the collapse of Marxism Get access Legacies of the collapse of Marxism. Edited by John H. Moore. Lanham, MD: George Mason University Press. 1994. 255pp. Index. $59.50; ISBN 0 913969 71 0. Pb.: $24.50; ISBN 0 913969 72 9. Richard Sakwa Richard Sakwa 1University of Kent at Canterbury Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 71, Issue 4, October 1995, Page 834,…
Political science (99 works) · Law (76 works) · Politics (70 works) · Sociology (66 works) · Law (57 works) · Political economy (53 works) · History (37 works) · Economic history (33 works) · Economics (32 works) · Russia and Soviet political economy (30 works)