Masculine Russia. The Role of Gender Norms in Russian Foreign Policy Discourse towards NATO

Student: Pichlmeier Paul

Faculty: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Educational Programme: International Relations in Eurasia (Master)

Final Grade: 7

Year of Graduation: 2018

Since Vladimir Putin’s accession to power in 2000, his masculine personality has aroused international attention. Especially in the context of contemporary NATO-Russian relations, media receptions often point out to Putin’s masculinity in order to explain the country’s behavior on the international stage. This dissertation discusses the link between individual masculine behavior and a country’s foreign policy by exploring the role of gender norms in Russian foreign policy discourse towards NATO. Based on the methodological tools of Foucauldian discourse analysis and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, a new analytical framework called discourse overlap is elaborated which enables to systematically detect characteristics that different discourses share. The presented findings offer a novel perspective on Russia’s behavior towards NATO by suggesting that Russian discourses on gender, national identity and foreign policy are interrelated.

Full text (added May 2, 2018)

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