Russia’s war against Ukraine has entered its second decade, and three years have passed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In this edition of the "Concerning War and Conflict" lecture series at Utrecht University, interdisciplinary scholars offer critical insight into what this case teaches us about war, human rights, and the governance of violent conflict in the 21st century. Each session includes a lecture, a Q&A session, and a networking moment. We aim to provide sensitive and rigorous analytical perspectives to a broad audience of Utrecht University staff, students, NGOs, policy makers, and the general public.
On November 4, Dr Olga Zeveleva (Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies, Utrecht University) will speak on "Colonialism and Authoritarianism - Russia’s imperial ambitions abroad and repressive politics at home."
This lecture addresses state violence in two domains at once: repressive domestic politics at home on one hand, and imperial ambitions abroad on the other hand. Authoritarianism and imperialism do not always go hand-in-hand, but they converge in the case of Russia’s war on Ukraine. In this talk, I analyze how authoritarianism and imperialism co-constitute one another by tracing Russia’s war on Ukraine from 2014 to its current full-scale invasion. First, I consider how the lenses of colonialism and imperialism help us make sense of this war, and how the logic of Russian politics abroad transformed to territorial logics over time. Second, I address how domestic authoritarian politics both set the stage for imperialist aggression, and are continuously shaped by this aggression. I focus both on Russian repressive politics within Russia and on the occupied territories, and draw on original research. The talk also contextualizes Russia’s war on Ukraine within a global constellation o f authoritarianism today.
