Research Article

PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE

Number: 13 June 30, 2025
RU EN TR

PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE

Abstract

This study examines the role of Russia’s strategic culture in shaping its foreign policy by analyzing historical, legal, and cultural constructs. Focusing on key concepts such as “kinship,” “people,” and “just war,” this study shows how these elements shape the continuity of Russia’s imperial identity and geopolitical goals. It does so through the work of Baron Petr Shafirov, Russia’s first international lawyer and statesman. It focuses on “A Discourse Concerning the Just Causes of the War Between Sweden and Russia,” written by Shafirov in 1717, as a foundational text in the development of Russia’s strategic culture. This is because Shafirov constructs a conceptual framework that articulates Russia’s imperial claim under Peter I, bringing together the Russian past and the thinking of the time. At the same time, this text tells us how the Russian bureaucracy perceived and interpreted the concepts of European international law literature. Likewise, Shafirov’s construction of the concepts of “kinship,” “people,” and “just war” on the basis of the concepts of “kinship,” “people,” and “just war” to legitimize Russia’s actions in its foreign and expansionist policy shows how it has been historically constructed and even continues to the present day. Shafirov’s work, which is a history of international law and diplomacy, is one of the cornerstones in the construction of strategic culture and requires analysis and interpretation using the interpretivist method. In this study, we will first explain the concept of strategic culture and then discuss its logic and functioning in Russia’s foreign policy. Then Shahirov’s work will be analyzed in this context.

Keywords

References

  1. Almond, Gabriel A., & Sydney Verba. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
  2. Bushkovitch, Paul. “Peter the Great and the West in Russian Culture and State,” Russian StudiesHu 4/1 (2022): 3-29.
  3. Çalık, Ayşe, Gülsüm, Rusya’nın Arktika Politikası. Ankara: AU Yayınları, 2025.
  4. Filho, Franca, & Marcílio Toscano. “Westphalia: A Paradigm? A Dialogue between Law, Art and Philosophy of Science.” German Law Journal 8/10 (2007): 955-975.
  5. Giddens, Anthony. New Rules of Sociological Method. California: Stanford University Press, 1993.
  6. Gray, Colin S. Modern Strategy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  7. Laruelle, Marlène. Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields. London: Routledge, 2018.
  8. Leustean, Lucian N. “Eastern Orthodoxy, Geopolitics and the 2016 ‘Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church’,” Geopolitics 23/1 (2018): 309-335.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

International Relations (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

June 30, 2025

Submission Date

January 7, 2025

Acceptance Date

June 3, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Number: 13

APA
Gafarov, O. (2025). PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi, 13, 219-236. https://doi.org/10.48068/rusad.1615100
AMA
1.Gafarov O. PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2025;(13):219-236. doi:10.48068/rusad.1615100
Chicago
Gafarov, Orkhan. 2025. “PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE”. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi, nos. 13: 219-36. https://doi.org/10.48068/rusad.1615100.
EndNote
Gafarov O (June 1, 2025) PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi 13 219–236.
IEEE
[1]O. Gafarov, “PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE”, Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 13, pp. 219–236, June 2025, doi: 10.48068/rusad.1615100.
ISNAD
Gafarov, Orkhan. “PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE”. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi. 13 (June 1, 2025): 219-236. https://doi.org/10.48068/rusad.1615100.
JAMA
1.Gafarov O. PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2025;:219–236.
MLA
Gafarov, Orkhan. “PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE”. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 13, June 2025, pp. 219-36, doi:10.48068/rusad.1615100.
Vancouver
1.Orkhan Gafarov. PETR SHAFIROV AND RUSSIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE. Rusya Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2025 Jun. 1;(13):219-36. doi:10.48068/rusad.1615100