Geopolitics, Memory, and the Limits of Cooperation: Russia, the West, and the Question of Hegemony
The discussion around Russian foreign policy, Western responses, and the ideas of thinkers such as Alexander Dugin sits at the intersection of history, geography, and political psychology. At its core lies a persistent question: are present Russian actions driven primarily by ideology, by structural geopolitical constraints, or by a long historical memory of insecurity? And, connected to this, can the enduring tension between Russia and the Western-led international order be resolved through cooperation and integration, similar to the way post-war Europe overcame its internal conflicts? A useful starting point is the intellectual framework of Alexander Dugin, a Russian political philosopher whose work, particularly in texts such as Eurasian Mission, proposes that Russia is not merely a nation-state but a distinct civilization. In his view, Russia constitutes the core of a broader Eurasian space that stands in opposition to what he terms the Atlantic world, dominated by the United State...