The War in Ukraine and Eurasia’s New Imperial Moment

1 Vladimir Putin, “Obrashchenie prezidenta Rossiyskoy Federatsii,” Kremlin, March 18, 2014, http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603.

2 In Michael Doyle’s definition, the defining characteristic of an empire is its imposition of “effective sovereignty” over other states and peoples. See Michael W. Doyle, Empires (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986), 19.

3 See Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (New York: Crown, 2019).

4 See especially Roy Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet: Learning and Power in Modern Iran (London: Chatto & Windus, 1986).

5 Einar Wigen, “Post-Ottoman Studies: An Area Studies That Never Was,” in Evá Á. Csató et al., eds., Building Bridges to Turkish: Essays in Honor of Bernt Brendemoen (Wiesbaden: Hassarowitz, 2013), 313–326.

6 See Dominic Lieven, “The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union as Imperial Polities,” Journal of Contemporary History 30, no. 4 (1995).

7 Dominic Lieven, Empire: The Russian Empire and its Rivals (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 22.

8 Fiona Hill and Omer Taspinar, “Turkey and Russia: Axis of the Excluded?,” Survival 48, no. 1 (2006): 81–92.

9 Michael Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind (New York: Penguin, 2007).

10 Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, “Cultures of Iranianness: The Evolving Polemic of Iranian Nationalism,” in Nikki R. Keddie and Rudi Matthee, eds., Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), 166-67.

11 Quoted in Farhang Rajaee, Islamic Values and World View: Khomeyni on Man, the State, and International Politics, vol. 13 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983), 82.

12 Michael Young, “Is War Between Hezbollah and Israel Likely in the Coming Year?,” Carnegie Middle East, September 21, 2017, http://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/73150.

13 Erik J. Zürcher, The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building: From the Ottoman Empire to Atatürk’s Turkey (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), 124–150.

14 “Ulusal Ant (Mısak-i Milli),” Türk Tarihi Kurumu, Jan 28, 1920, https://www.webcitation.org/6Ol8KkhHX.

15 Haid Haid, “Turkey’s Efforts to Professionalize Its Syrian Allies,” Carnegie Endowment, November 2, 2018, https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/77637; Khaled al-Khateb, “Syrian Opposition Forms Force to Hold Its Army Accountable,” Al-Monitor, March 22, 2018, https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/03/syria-opposition-military-police-euphrates-national-army.html.

16 Kadir Ustun, “Why Does Turkey Care About Mosul?” Al-Jazeera, November 24, 2016, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/11/turkey-care-mosul-161123084559305.html; Yildiz Nevin Gundogmus and Burcu Calik, “Land Certificates Show Turkish Ties to Iraq,” Anadolu Ajansı, October 26, 2016, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/land-certificates-show-turkish-ties-to-iraq/672855.

17 Joshua Kucera, “Georgians Wary of Rising Turkish Influence in Batumi,” EurasiaNet, March 9, 2017, https://eurasianet.org/georgians-wary-of-turkeys-rising-influence-in-batumi.

18 Asli Aydıntaşbaş, “From Myth to Reality: How to Understand Turkey’s Role in the Western Balkans,” European Council on Foreign Relations, March 13, 2019, https://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/from_myth_to_reality_how_to_understand_turkeys_role_in_the_western_balkans.

19 “Izetbegovic Says His Father ‘Bequeathed’ Bosnia to Erdogan,” Beta, October 20, 2017, https://www.b92.net/eng/news/region.php?yyyy=2017&mm=10&dd=20&nav_id=102605; Hamdi Fırat Büyük and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, “The Role of Leadership Networks in Turkey–Balkan Relations in the AKP Era,” Turkish Policy Quarterly, November 29, 2019, http://turkishpolicy.com/article/982/the-role-of-leadership-networks-in-turkey%E2%80%93balkan-relations-in-the-akp-era.

20 Liu Xiaoyuan, “Rediscovery of the Frontier in Recent Chinese History,” in William C. Kirby, ed., The People’s Republic of China at 60: An International Assessment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center, 2011), 307.

21 Zhao Tingyang, “Rethinking Empire from a Chinese Concept ‘All-Under-Heaven’ (Tian-xia),” Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 12, no. 1 (2006): 31.

22 June Teufel Dreyer, “China’s Tianxia: Do All Under Heaven Need One Arbiter?,” YaleGlobal Online, October 30, 2014, https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/chinas-tianxia-do-all-under-heaven-need-one-arbiter.

23 Zhao Tingyang, “All-Under-Heaven and Methodological Relationism: An Old Story and New World Peace,” in Fred Dallmayr and Zhao Tingyang, eds., Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2012), 60; William A. Callahan, “Chinese Visions of World Order: Post-hegemonic or a New Hegemony?,” International Studies Review 10 (2008): 752–753.

24 Xi Jinping, “Full text of President Xi's speech at opening of Belt and Road forum,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 15, 2017, https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/201705/t20170527_678618.html.

25 Nadège Rolland, “China’s Vision for a New World Order,” NBR, Jan 27, 2020: 49, https://www.nbr.org/publication/chinas-vision-for-a-new-world-order/;See also, Denghua Zhang, “The Concept of ‘Community of Common Destiny’ in China’s Diplomacy: Meaning, Motives and Implications,” Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies 5, no. 2 (2018): 196–207.

26 Kristine Lee and Alexander Sullivan, “People’s Republic of the United Nations: China’s Emerging Revisionism in International Organizations,” CNAS, May 2019, https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/peoples-republic-of-the-united-nations.

27 Xi Jinping, “Work Together to Build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21^st-Century Maritime Silk Road,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 15, 2017, https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/t1465819.shtml.

28 Shanghai Cooperation Organization, “РАТС ШОС в борьбе с ‘тремя злами,’” February 11, 2011, http://infoshos.ru/ru/?idn=7678.

29 U.S. Department of State, “2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: China—Xinjiang,” June 2, 2022, https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/xinjiang/.

30 Permanent Court of Arbitration, “The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China),” July 12, 2016, https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/7/.

31 Bruce Pannier, “Central Asian Land and China,” RFE/RL, May 2, 2016, https://www.rferl.org/a/central-asian-land-and-china/27711366.html.

32 Ian W. Campbell, “‘Our Friendly Rivals’: Rethinking the Great Game in Ya’qub Beg’s Kashgaria, 1867–77,” Central Asian Studies 33, no. 2 (2014): 199–214.

33 Botakoz Kassymbekova and Erica Marat, “Time to Question Russia’s Imperial Innocence,” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo, April 27 2022, https://www.ponarseurasia.org/time-to-question-russias-imperial-innocence/.

34 Gerard Toal, Near Abroad: Putin, the West, and the Contest Over Ukraine and the Caucasus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).

35 Dmitriy Medvedev, “Interv’yu Dmitriya Medvedeva rossiyskim telekanalam,” Kremlin, August 31, 2008, http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/1276; Dmitri Trenin, “Russia’s Spheres of Interest, Not Influence,” Washington Quarterly 32, no. 4 (2009): 3–22.

36 Dmitri Trenin, The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment, 2002), 181–186.

37 Vladimir Putin, “Novyy integratsionnyy proyekt dlya Yevrazii—budushchee, kotoroe rozhdayetsya segodnya,” Izvestiya, October 3, 2011, https://iz.ru/news/502761; “K velikomu okeanu: Ot povorota na vostok k Bol’shoy Yevrazii,” in S. A. Karaganov and T. V. Bordachev, eds., K velikomu okeanu: khronika povorota na Vostok (Moscow: Valdai, 2019).

38 Irina Busygina, “Russia in the Eurasian Economic Union: Lack of Trust Limits the Possible,” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo, February 2019, 571, http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/russia-eurasian-economic-union-lack-trust-russia-limits-possible; Rilka Dragneva and Kataryna Wolczuk, “The Eurasian Economic Union: Deals, Rules and the Exercise of Power,” Chatham House, May 2017, https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2017-05-02-eurasian-economic-union-dragneva-wolczuk.pdf.

39 Vladimir Putin, “Stat’ya Vladimira Putina ob istoricheskom yedinstve russkikh i ukraintsev,” Kremlin, July 21, 2021, http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181.

40 Jeffrey Mankoff, “Russia’s War in Ukraine: Identity, History, and Conflict,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, April 22, 2022, https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-war-ukraine-identity-history-and-conflict.

41 “The Conflict with Ukraine,” Levada Center, April 11, 2022, https://www.levada.ru/en/2022/04/11/the-conflict-with-ukraine/.

42 Ahmet Davutoğlu, “Address of H.E. Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Turkey,” Osmanlı mirası ve günümüz Balkan Müsülman toplumları (Balkanlar Medeniyet Merkezi, 2009), 17, https://cns.ba/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/osmansko-naslijede-i-musulmanske-zajednice-Balkana-danas-zbornik-radova.pdf.

43 See especially Sergey Lavrov, “On Law, Rights and Rules,” Russia in Global Affairs 19, no. 3 (2021): 228-240, https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/the-law-the-rights-and-the-rules/.

44 United Nations, “Aggression against Ukraine: resolution/adopted by the General Assembly,” March 3, 2022, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3959039.

45 Jeffrey Mankoff, “Turkey’s Balancing Act on Ukraine is Becoming More Precarious,” Foreign Policy, March 10, 2022, https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/10/turkey-ukraine-russia-war-nato-erdogan/.

46 Kourosh Ziabari, “In Backing Russia on Ukraine, Iran Is on the Wrong Side of History,” Foreign Policy, March 9, 2022, https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/09/iran-support-russia-war-ukraine/.

47 “Sovmestnoe zayavlenie Rossiyskoy Federatsii i Kitayskoy Narodnoy Respubliki o mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniyakh, vstupayushchikh v novuyu epokhu, i global’nom ustoychivom razvitii,” Kremlin, February 4, 2022, http://www.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770.

48 Stuart Lau, “China’s New Vassal: Vladimir Putin,” Politico, June 6, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/china-new-vassal-vladimir-putin/.

49 Alexey Kovalev, “For Opposition to Putin’s War, Look to the Fringes of His Empire,” Foreign Policy, May 20, 2022, https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/20/russia-ukraine-war-casualties-deaths-putin-ethnic-minorities-racism/.

50 Anne Applebaum, “The War Won’t End Until Putin Loses,” Atlantic, May 23, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/why-ukraine-must-defeat-putin-russia/629940/.