Rojek- Imperialism and nationalism

Question 1

neoimperial or postimperial?
Dmitri Trenin

Answer 1

• postimperial
• Russia is ceasing to be an empire
• Russia wanted to remain one of the major players in the international game were great powers with a privileged zone of influence, but this had nothing to do with building a universalist empire like in the Tsarist or Soviet times.
• authoritarianism is different from imperialism
  -expansionist rhetoric
• First, Russia wants to be internally sovereign, secondly, it wants to be externally sovereign, and thirdly, it wants to maintain its own zone of influence
• the shift has occurred as Russians have become less committed to grand collective projects and more focused on personal concerns. They also became much less willing to share their wealth, while possessing an empire requires sacrifices.
• an empire needs to be univasalistic but today its nationalistic

Question 2

neoimperial or postimperial?
Marcel Van Herpen

Answer 2

• Neoimperial
• The Russian Empire is being rebuilt
• Russian despotism is the most important cause
  of Russian expansion. This is so because imperialist aggression helps to neutralize social tensions produced by authoritarianism. Van Herpen severely criticized Trenin’s
  interpretation. He insisted that “the problem with Trenin’s analysis is not only that it is too simple, but also that it contradicts the facts”
• evidenced by the fact that just after the publication of Trenin’s book in December 2011, Moscow launched
  the Eurasian Union project, which he considered the final effort to restore the lost empire
• annexed crimerea aggressive territorial expansion

Question 3

Neoimperial or postimperial?
Rojek

Answer 3

• The current war against Ukraine cannot be interpreted as an attempt to restore the Russian empire because being an empire requires a universalistic ideology that other nations can accept. Meanwhile, the ideological foundation of the current war is a nationalistic conception of the “Russian world.”
• Every previous form of Russian imperialism appealed to some supranational ideas, such as Orthodoxy, Enlightenment, or Communism

Question 4

how does he categorise russia

Answer 4

• The traditional empire- the core empire
  religion- early modern
• the classical empire- collonies and surrounding areas
  white mans burden civilising mission
  collapsed as came to nationalistic
  modern
• the soviet empire
  communism
  national principle undermine the imperial one
  20thc

Question 5

expand on Herpens argument on despotism

Answer 5

underlying mechanism is that undemocratic governments generate citizen discontent that can be neutralized by the government’s use of neoimperialistic rhetoric and occasionally aggressive activity in the international sphere. Citizens thus give up their political freedom in exchange for
national pride. The expansion legitimizes government and unites the nation around common causes. Unfortunately, the government, in order to maintain support, must
permanently mobilize citizens and engage in aggressive external politics.

Question 6

post imperial

Answer 6

• empire declines/ is left behind gradually
• retains some for of an empire (legacy)
• has an imperial past but is not anymore
  -britain franc ebelgium post colonial states

Question 7

neo- imperial

Answer 7

• empire is being buildt
  -aspiration to be an empire again
• napolinonic france
• china today soft power and diplomacy
• you could argue us but has it always be an empire?
• portugual under saalzar

Question 8

Russian history might be seen as a great laboratory of imperialism. Explain

Answer 8

• ideologies role in the rise and fall of empires as analysed in the three empires of russia