How War Becomes Acceptable: Russian re-phrasing of Chechnya Julie Wilhelmsen PhD thesis in Political Science, submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo November 2013 Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for their support in helping me to complete this dissertation. First of all, Richard Wyn Jones has been the perfect tutor. He has been frank, enthusiastic and supportive beyond what could be expected from any supervisor. I have benefited greatly from the environment at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and in particular from my colleagues in the Russia research group. Cooperation and conversations over the years with Helge Blakkisrud, Geir Flikke, Jakub Godzimirski, Heidi Kjærnet, Elana Wilson Rowe and Indra Øverland have made this dissertation possible. Also the group of NUPI colleagues who persistently work on theory, despite the lack of funding for such activity, have been a great inspiration. I would like to thank Iver Neumann, Ole Jacob Sending, Halvard Leira, Karsten Friis and Morten Skumsrud Andersen for keeping up the good work. I am particularly grateful to Kristin Haugevik, who has been my closest companion on this journey, intellectually and personally. Several persons have read my text or parts of it at various stages. I would like to thank Patrick Jackson for very useful comments on the theory chapter and Jeff Checkel for thorough feedback on the research design. I am indebted to Elana Wilson Rowe, Iver Neumann, Ole Jacob Sending and Stacie Goddard in particular, for having read the entire text and providing comments that were both encouraging and challenging. Although the content of this dissertation is fully my own responsibility, I have relied on several people for assistance with technical and linguistic challenges along the way. I would like to thank Natalia Moen-Larsen and Alesia Prachakova for helping me search for texts and Zhanna Petrukovich for assisting me with legal documents and checking Russian transcriptions. I am grateful to the librarians at NUPI, Tore Gustavsson in particular. Liv Høivik has helped me put the entire dissertation into one document. Last but not least, I am grateful to Susan Høivik for her invaluable language editing. iii A special word of thanks to Jan-Morten Torrisen, Head of Administration at NUPI, for encouraging me while I was ill and creating sufficient space to enable me to complete this dissertation. I would also like to thank the Norwegian Ministry of Defence for generously financing this project. Beyond academia, my family and friends have provided invaluable and continuous support. In particular I thank my five children Georg, Isak, Karl, Maria and Agnes for being so patient, loving and encouraging, and reminding me every day what the most important things in life are. Above all, I am indebted to my dear husband Frantz, for everything. iv Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research question in context ............................................................................................ 1 Thesis and the literature ..................................................................................................... 7 Outline of chapters ........................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Theory framework .......................................................................................................... 18 Securitization theory as a point of departure .................................................................... 18 Post-structuralist propositions .......................................................................................... 22 A post-structuralist reading of securitization theory ........................................................ 28 Summing up ..................................................................................................................... 55 1.3 Research method ............................................................................................................ 58 Discourse analysis as a method ........................................................................................ 58 Intertextual scope, sources and operationalization chapter by chapter ............................ 64 2. From de-securitization to securitization: official discourse on Chechnya .......................... 75 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 75 2.2 The interwar period: a case of de-securitization ............................................................ 77 ‘Centuries-old confrontation is coming to an end’ ........................................................... 79 Summing up ..................................................................................................................... 89 2.3 Securitizing for war ........................................................................................................ 91 Prelude to securitization ................................................................................................... 93 ‘We want to end, once and for all, the centre of international terrorism in Chechnya’ . 103 The official securitizing narrative .................................................................................. 115 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 120 2.4 Conclusions to chapter 2 .............................................................................................. 123 3. Audience acceptance: political elite, expert and media discourse on Chechnya ............... 127 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 127 3.2 Discursive terrain ......................................................................................................... 130 Tsarist and Soviet era representations ............................................................................ 130 Representations during the First Chechen War .............................................................. 133 Communist and nationalist representations in the interwar period ................................ 139 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 146 v 3.3 Political elite representations of Chechnya and Russia autumn 1999 .......................... 147 The waning of an alternative position on Chechnya ...................................................... 149 … and reinforcement of the official position on Chechnya ........................................... 156 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 169 3.4 Expert and journalistic representations of Chechnya and Russia autumn 1999 .......... 172 Experts on Chechnya ...................................................................................................... 174 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 193 Journalists on Chechnya ................................................................................................. 194 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 221 3.5 Sustaining audience acceptance ................................................................................... 226 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 237 3.6 Conclusions to chapter 3 .............................................................................................. 240 4. Emergency measures: practices of war .............................................................................. 249 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 249 4.2 Initial endorsement ....................................................................................................... 252 4.3 Sealing off Chechnya ................................................................................................... 257 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 274 4.4 Bombing Chechnya ...................................................................................................... 275 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 291 4.5 Cleansing Chechnya ..................................................................................................... 293 Summing up ................................................................................................................... 322 4.6 Conclusions to chapter 4 .............................................................................................. 325 5. Conclusions and perspectives ............................................................................................