Course directory

BMET 27A04 - Russia Foreign Policy: A decolonizing perspective

BMET 27A04 · Fall semester 2026-2027

Language of tuition
English
Course type
Atelier
Number of hours
24
Credits
3

Information

Description

The course proposes a critical analysis of the Russian foreign policy as an imperial and militarized power. The course deploys the topics of Russia’s policy “near abroad”, Russo-Ukrainian war, Russian military presence in Middle East, and Africa, relations with China, NATO, EU, and U.S., Russia’s climate policy, with the concepts of “internal colonization”, “petrostate”, “Russian World”, “sovereign democracy”, “biopolitical empire”, “nuclear orthodoxy”, “schizofascism” and many others. The course aims at attentive critical reading the pro-Kremlin narratives and their consequent deconstruction from the decolonial perspective of IR, political philosophy, history, sociology and cultural studies.

Readings

Main readings 1

  1. Adamsky, Dima. Russian nuclear orthodoxy : religion, politics, and strategy. Stanford, California : Stanford University press. 2019.

Further readings 4

  1. Alexander Etkind. Nature's evil: a cultural history of natural resources, Cambridge, UK and Medford, USA, Polity Press New Russian Thought series, 2021

  2. Applebaum, Anne. Autocracy, Inc. : the dictators who want to run the world. London : Allen Lane. 2024.

  3. Beck, Plokhii, Snyder, et al. Understanding Ukraine: Tracing the Roots of Terror and Violence with a foreword by Dmytro Kuleba. [s.l.] : Ibidem Press. 2023.

  4. Byford, Andy, Connor Doak, et Stephen Hutchings. « Decolonizing the Transnational, Transnationalizing the Decolonial: Russian Studies at the Crossroads », Forum for modern language studies. 2024, vol.60 no 3. p. 339‑357.

Teaching units

Unit no.Unit type Teaching unitsTeachers Number of hoursCredits
18018Atelier Russia Foreign Policy: A decolonizing perspective Alexandra YATSYK243

Teachers

  • Alexandra YATSYK

In the curricula

Contacts and resources

Contact
GUIBORAT Célia