Actions and visions: Reflections from the Russian-Ukraine conflict

 

Russia’s recent call of war on Ukraine has drawn all the attention of the international community in anticipation and preparation for Russia’s next move. The move of declaring war and attempting to secure a state through physical means is the scenario meant to be avoided by all international global organizations. These developments are going to transform and redefine the way states respond to security threats and put to test the understanding of security studies. A big part of the attacks led by Russia on Ukraine includes a cyber element. The recent attacks on the department websites of the Ukrainian government, “Earlier on Wednesday the websites of Ukraine's government, foreign ministry and state security service were down in what the government said was another denial of service (DDoS) attack. "At about 4 p.m., another mass DDoS attack on our state began. We have relevant data from a number of banks," said Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, adding that the parliament website was also hit. (Tsvetkova and Zinets 2022)” showcase the how the element of cyberwarfare is something the Russians use very often; these attacks were also elements present in the annexation of Crimea as well. Through Ken Booth’s understanding of security and his analysis for the inclusion of the numerous elements absent in the mainstream understanding of security studies and its referent objects being the embedded individual, the Russian-Ukraine conflict particularly through the cyber scene through its various attacks, disinformation campaigns, the sophisticated use of technology in areas of arsenal and military, ideas of its leaders, cultural and historical ties, the role of information decimation and its use in the maintenance of a certain order all further highlight the in the number of elements, factors and possibilities excluded in the mainstream straightjacket understanding of security and the threat it presents if it continues to persist for international relations. 

 

Ken Booth’s paper Security and Self Reflections of A Fallen Realist, highlights his changes in terms of academic direction and diverting from the mainstream because it just didn’t cover the complexities he considered important to an individual’s security. Emphasizing that his contributions were part of alternative thinking, topics that went beyond the mainstream security analysis, cybersecurity is one such domain whose position is very contested. With the advent of globalization and the coming of the digital age, the internet, the number of cyberattacks have also increased. It is a threat that calls for collective action and is categorized as something new and emerging however, with the number of increasing states paying attention to it, it has come become part of one of the mainstream threats to a state’s security. Its position is contested and it also happens to align with Booth’s understanding of new security, “not simply a matter of `broadening' the subject matter (widening the agenda of issues beyond the merely military). It is possible—as Barry Buzan has shown above all—to expand `international security studies' both vertically and horizontally, and remain within an asserted neo-realist framework and approach. (Booth 1994)” Cybersecurity includes elements of the military and using it alongside military operations in the area of war, like in the Russian-Ukraine war. However, it is contested as there is no agreed global framework on what constitutes a cyberattack, the lack of affirmative action to define the same, the disparities in how much states of the Global North can afford to invest in these areas to the states of the Global South. 

Booth also highlights the importance of reflecting on the questions of how changes in the real world are not simply enough to reflect academic interests without keeping the various aspect of an individual’s identity in mind. “They have only one objective: to prevent the development of Russia. They are going to do it in the same way as they did it before, without furnishing even a single pretext, doing it just because we exist. (Eltchaninof 2022)” These are extracted from Russian President, Putin’s speech concerning Ukraine. As the highest representative of the state, his ideas and identity play a role in how the international adapts. Given the context of the Cold war significantly shaping the conception of the Russian identity, the decision to declare war on Ukraine also ties with the idea that the Eastern block is dominated by Russian influence and is one where there exist deep historical and cultural ties. The ambition to integrate into NATO by Ukraine is seen as a win of the western vision over that of the Russians. Putin’s vision also builds on the work of Ivan Ilyin, whose collection of essays Our Tasks is one of the president's favorite's, he talks about, “In one of the president’s preferred essays, “What does the world seek from the dismemberment of Russia?”, Ilyin denounces the country’s “imperialist neighbours”, these “western peoples who neither understand nor accept Russian originality”. In the future, he suggests, these countries will inevitably attempt to seize territories such as the Baltic countries, the Caucasus, central Asia and, especially, Ukraine. The method, according to Ilyin, will be the hypocritical promotion of values such as “freedom” in order to transform Russia into “a gigantic Balkans”. The final object is to “dismember Russia, to subject her to western control, to dismantle her and in the end make her disappear” (Eltchaninof 2022). This also highlights the role of academics and knowledge production and how it cannot be seen in isolation to the ideas and agendas it has enmeshed in its messages. It further has a role it has in linking the developments ‘out there’ with changes ‘in here’ (the mind of the academic)

Booth’s reflections also emphasize the gendered nature of the IR and how women were not even seen as important until the late 1960s. He sees their views and contributions as something very crucial to overcome the regressive nature of the discipline. It also reflects an aspect from Hansen’s work, “successful speech acts construct subjects allow us to return to the question of silence. ‘Security, the speech act’ relies upon and reinforces a particular demarcation of the political subject, but this demarcation only works through a simultaneous silencing; as Butler notes, ‘one can be interpellated, put in place, given a place, through silence, through not being addressed (Hansen 2000)”.He also highlights the notions of “heroic” that have associated traditionally with men and soldiers, the Russia-Ukraine crisis also challenges these masculinized notions with the role women play in combat, especially their role in Ukraine as snipers in the military and forces the state to acknowledge the role women have played and continue to play in the conflict. Numerous people on the frontline are ready to fight for the country and this spirit is highlighted through the presence of the Babushka (old women/grandmother) battalion, who have been given training by the neo-Nazi military unit, Azov, “the training offered basic lessons in first response medical care, survival and evacuation, weapons safety and how to shoot a weapon. Residents said it is the only safety or awareness training they have received in almost eight years of conflict. (Cookman 2022)” The latest way women have also used technology in the conflict is through the app Tinder, multiple reports have stated Russian soldiers swiping on them and giving up information on the possible attacks, “Many would-be paramours reportedly flirted with treachery as they gave away their military positions while forces assembled north of Kharkiv prepared for what appeared to be an imminent attack, according to Ukrainian military intelligence officials. (O’Neill 2022)”

References 

Booth, Kenneth. “Security and Self : Reflections of a Fallen Realist.” (1994). 

Cookman, Liz. 2022. "‘Babushka Battalion’ Ready To Protect Ukraine From Russia". Aljazeera.Com. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/14/babushka-battalion-ready-to-protect-ukraine-from-russia. 

Eltchaninof, Michel. 2022. "What's Going On Inside Putin's Mind? His Own Words Give Us A Disturbing Clue | Michel Eltchaninoff". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/25/putin-mind-words-russia-victimhood. 

Hansen, Lene. "The Little Mermaid's silent security dilemma and the absence of gender in the Copenhagen School." Millennium 29, no. 2 (2000): 285-306. 

O’Neill, Jesse. 2022. "Ukrainian Women Say Russian Troops Are Flirting With Them On Tinder". Nypost.Com. https://nypost.com/2022/02/24/ukrainian-women-say-russian-troops-are-flirting-with-them-on-tinder/.

Tsvetkova, Maria, and Natalia Zinets. 2022. "Ukraine Computers Hit By Data-Wiping Software As Russia Launched Invasion". https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-government-foreign-ministry-parliament-websites-down-2022-02-23/