Speaker
Description
This paper explores what drove Vladimir Putin’s decisions to send troops on combat missions to foreign countries since his ascent to the Russian presidency on the last day of 1999. The author will first infer hypothetical drivers of Putin’s decisions to send troops to fight abroad from the academic literature on the subject. He will then explore whether any of the inferred drivers have been present in instances when, as the evidence that will be presented in this paper demonstrates, Putin has deliberated whether to order such an intervention. The author will examine a total of nine such instances, including six in which the Russian leader decided to send troops to fight abroad, and three in which he chose not to. This examination will aim to reveal what confluence of conditions has been both necessary and sufficient for the Kremlin autocrat to order a military intervention in a foreign country. Ascertaining this confluence would constitute a modest contribution to the body of academic knowledge about the use of force by post-Soviet Russia against other countries, in the author’s view. The paper’s findings may also be of practical use for policymakers whose job it is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill’s 1939 adage, to unwrap the riddle in a mystery inside an enigma in order to forecast to you forceful actions of Russia against other countries.
| What discipline or branch of humanities or social sciences do you identify yourself with? | war studies |
|---|---|
| If you are submitting an Open Panel proposal, have you included all four abstracts in attachment? | No, I am submitting a Closed Panel abstract |
| Are you a PhD student or early-career researcher? | No |
