Solidarity, Securitisation, and Europe in an Age of Hybrid Threats
Mark Galeotti contibuted to the Central European Political Science Review (CEPSR, ISSN: 1586-4197 977158649005) analysis on the series of threats Europe is facing from Russia.
At present, Europe is grappling with a very real – even if often exaggerated and mythologised – series of threats from Russia. Vladimir Putin’s regime is determined to restore what it feels as Russia’s rightful status as a ‘great power’ and is considering this in positively nineteenth-century terms, not expressed through economic dynamism and soft power, but a voice and veto in global discussions and a sphere of influence enforced by military muscle if need be. Meanwhile, Europe is committed, however imperfectly at times, to a values-based foreign policy and the maintenance of the post-1945 world order, not least its notion that state sovereignty is a right, indivisible, and independent of the size of that state and the firepower of its armies. Ukraine is the obvious battleground where these two visions collide, but just as valid would be Western support for investigative journalists and anti-corruption movements inside Russia. To the West, these are simply expressions of those values; to Putin a deliberate and cynical ploy to undermine his regime.
The article was published in Central European Political Science Review, Volume 17, Number 66 (Winter 2016).
You can find the pre-print here.
Dr Mark Galeotti is the IIR Senior Researcher as well as an internationally recognized expert on transnational organized crime, security issues and modern Russia.