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ID: 158723

How postcolonial is post-Western IR? mimicry and mētis in the international politics of Russia and Central Asia / Owen, Catherine; Heathershaw, John ; Savin, Igor

Heathershaw, John	Journal Article
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Summary/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.

Key Words

Central Asia ; Russia ; Postcolonialism ; Post-Western International Relations

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ID: 118741

Managing differences in the mul tiethnic communities of South K / Savin, Igor

Savin, Igor	Journal Article
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2012.

Summary/Abstract

Kazakhstan is frequently looked upon as a country that has succeeded in harmonizing an extremely ethnically and confessionally diverse social environment. There are indeed reasons for such inferences, one in particular being the absence of open mass opposition among different groups of the population in the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, this in no way means that the country's social development is entirely free of collisions or inter-group tension. Such conflict is apt to erupt whenever the government and society fail to react on time to the challenges arising in our ever complicated social world.

Key Words

Social Development ; Kazakhstan ; Social Environment ; South Kazakhstan ; Multiethnic Rural Settlements

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