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How postcolonial is post-Western IR? Mimicry and mētis in the international politics of Russia and Central Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2017

Catherine Owen ,
John Heathershaw  and
Igor Savin
Catherine Owen*
Affiliation:
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Politics, University of Exeter
John Heathershaw*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, International Relations, University of Exeter
Igor Savin*
Affiliation:
Head of the Department of Central Asia at the Central Eurasia Research Centre, Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow
*
*Correspondence to: Catherine Owen, Department of Politics, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, University of Exeter, EX4 4RJ. Author’s email: C.A.M.Owen@exeter.ac.uk
**Correspondence to: John Heathershaw, Department of Politics, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, University of Exeter, EX4 4RJ. Author’s email: J.D.Heathershaw@exeter.ac.uk
***Correspondence to: Igor Savin, Institute of Oriental Studies, ul. Rozhdestvenka, 12, Moscow, Russia, 107031. Author’s email: savigsa@inbox.ru
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Abstract

Scholars of International Relations have called for the creation of a post-Western IR that reflects the global and local contexts of the declining power and legitimacy of the West. Recognising this discourse as indicative of the postcolonial condition, we deploy Homi Bhabha’s concept of mimicry and James C. Scott’s notion of mētis to assess whether international political dynamics of a hybrid kind are emerging. Based on interviews with Central Asian political, economic, and cultural elites, we explore the emergence of a new global politics of a post-Western type. We find that Russia substantively mimics the West as a post-Western power and that there are some suggestive examples of the role of mētis in its foreign policy. Among Central Asian states, the picture is more equivocal. Formal mimicry and mētis of a basic kind are observable, but these nascent forms suggest that the dialectical struggle between colonial clientelism and anti-colonial nationalism remains in its early stages. In this context, a post-Western international politics is emerging with a postcolonial aspect but without the emergence of the substantive mimicry and hybrid spaces characteristic of established postcolonial relations.

Keywords

Post-Western International RelationsPostcolonialismRussiaCentral Asia
Type
Articles
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 279 - 300
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2017 

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108 Interview with journalist and member of strategic studies think tank, Bishkek, November 2013.

109 Interview with member of public policy think tank, Bishkek, November 2013.

110 Interview with university lecturer and former UNDP member, Bishkek, November 2013.

111 Interview with independent expert, Bishkek, November 2013.

112 Interview with journalist and member of strategic studies think tank, Bishkek, November 2013.

113 Interview with head of Department for Social Research, National Academy of Sciences, Bishkek, November 2013.

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118 Ibid., pp. 95–101.

119 Ibid., pp. 153–7.

120 Morozov, Russia’s Postcolonial Identity; Zarakol, After Empire.

121 See, for example, Kyrgyzstan’s American airbase (2001–14), which was continued against Russia’s wishes, and Tajikistan rejection of Russian investment in favour of Chinese and even Western commerce (especially after the summit between Putin and Rahmon in 2005).

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