The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is occupying the minds of pundits, scholars, and politicians worldwide and across the political spectrum. In the midst of these discussions, Eastern European voices have mobilized around claims to sovereignty as the ability to make choices about which alliances to join a...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory 2023
_version_ 1811139196728901632
collection OXFORD
description Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is occupying the minds of pundits, scholars, and politicians worldwide and across the political spectrum. In the midst of these discussions, Eastern European voices have mobilized around claims to sovereignty as the ability to make choices about which alliances to join and claims to knowledge about the nature of Russian imperialism. In this essay, I analyze the claims to sovereignty and knowledge from the perspective of one Eastern European subject, namely the Latvian subject. I conclude that the encounter between the Latvian subject and its very own Russian imperialism represents a clash of sovereignties rather than a clash of civilizations. If the Latvian subject strives for an international relations version of sovereignty that allows it to join existing alliances, the Russian state as a multinational federation—or an empire—strives for a geopolitical version of sovereignty that allows it to constitute—or reshape—orders.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T07:47:21Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:afeba26e-7f40-4c29-860a-276f9d0bf6de
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-09-25T04:02:15Z
publishDate 2023
publisher HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:afeba26e-7f40-4c29-860a-276f9d0bf6de2024-05-01T08:24:12ZThe clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialismJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:afeba26e-7f40-4c29-860a-276f9d0bf6deEnglishSymplectic ElementsHAU Society for Ethnographic Theory2023Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is occupying the minds of pundits, scholars, and politicians worldwide and across the political spectrum. In the midst of these discussions, Eastern European voices have mobilized around claims to sovereignty as the ability to make choices about which alliances to join and claims to knowledge about the nature of Russian imperialism. In this essay, I analyze the claims to sovereignty and knowledge from the perspective of one Eastern European subject, namely the Latvian subject. I conclude that the encounter between the Latvian subject and its very own Russian imperialism represents a clash of sovereignties rather than a clash of civilizations. If the Latvian subject strives for an international relations version of sovereignty that allows it to join existing alliances, the Russian state as a multinational federation—or an empire—strives for a geopolitical version of sovereignty that allows it to constitute—or reshape—orders.
spellingShingle The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism
title The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism
title_full The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism
title_fullStr The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism
title_full_unstemmed The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism
title_short The clash of sovereignties: the Latvian subjects and its Russian imperialism
title_sort clash of sovereignties the latvian subjects and its russian imperialism