Rujan, Andreea; (2024) The Russia-China Dyad. The Negotiation of Russian Identity in Relation to Its Eastern Neighbour. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Russia’s 2014 pivot to the East, accelerated by the annexation of Crimea, brought Russia-China relations to the fore of political debates. However, the general tendency among academics and professionals alike has been to examine these bilateral relations through realist lenses, seeing Russia-China relations as a vector of these countries’ relations with the USA and the West more broadly. This research seeks to detach itself from the dominant realist interpretations of Russian-Chinese relations, instead focusing on how identities, ideas, history and habitual practices affect Russia’s interactions with China. Drawing on existing literature on Russia-China relations and Russian national identity, this research is prompted by three broad premises: the formation of the Self’s identity in relation to external Others, the increasingly asymmetric nature of the relation between Russia and China, and Russia’s enduring perception of itself as a Great Power. Taken in their entirety, these premises raise questions as to how the post-2014 reversal of hierarchy between Russia and China is affecting Russian identity. This research will not only advance understandings of Russian identity in foreign policy, but can also clarify why Russia appears to have acquiesced to the role of ‘junior partner’ of China, a country that had been historically its inferior. This research project is a case-study of national identity in foreign policy, providing a thorough and in-depth analysis of Russian identity as it emerges from interaction with China. While many scholars described Russia’s position as paradoxical, this research will reveal how Russia negotiates its identity relative to China in the twenty-first century, and whether there is a dimension to Russian identity that makes the current reversal of hierarchy beneficial, or at the very least tolerable.

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