Alicja Curanović

University of Warsaw, Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Adjunct

University of Warsaw, Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, Adjunct

Followers

247

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations at the University of Warsaw. She holds a PhD in political science (PhD thesis: "The Religious Factor in the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation"). Her main research interests are: Russian foreign policy; religious factor in international relations; international relations in the post-Soviet area, perception, identity, image and status, messianism in politics. She has conducted research inter alia at the Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, the Russian State University for Humanistic Studies and MGIMO. Her articles appeared in academic journals, e.g. "Problems of Post-Communism", “Politics and Religion”, “Nationalities Papers” or “Religion, State and Society”. Her monograph – “The Religious Factor in Russia's Foreign Policy” (Routledge 2012).

less

Andreas Umland

National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy"

Cristiana Facchini

Università di Bologna

Carla Bagnoli

Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Vera Shevzov

Smith College

Noe Cornago

University of the Basque Country, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

Ben Tonra

University College Dublin

Marlene Laruelle

The George Washington University

Aristotle Papanikolaou

Fordham University

Sverrir Jakobsson

University of Iceland

InterestsView All (15)

Uploads

Papers by Alicja Curanović

Justice at home and abroad: the vision of the Russian Orthodox Church

Religion, State and Society, 2024

Since the beginning of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, numerous articles have been writt... more Since the beginning of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine,
numerous articles have been written about the reasons why the
Moscow Patriarchate supports it and how the church is legitimising
the aggression. The usual ideational suspects were named, i.e.
russkiy mir, ‘Holy Rus’ and ‘Moscow, the Third Rome’. In this paper
I draw attention to an important yet overlooked concept which
allows the church’s leadership to present their support for the war
as a noble act. I analyse how the leadership of the Russian Orthodox
Church understands justice in relation to politics, especially the
international order and foreign relations. The goal of the paper is
to reconstruct the justice narrative of the Moscow Patriarchate – its
content, the context in which it appears and its role. The findings
are based on interpretative discourse analysis of a sample of 403
documents retrieved from the official websites of the Moscow
Patriarchate (2000–2023).

The Keeper of the Imperial Body: The Russian Geographical Society as an Entrepreneur of Imperial Nationalism

Nationalities Papers, 2024

The goal of this article is to show Russia’s civilizational turn in the broader context of imperi... more The goal of this article is to show Russia’s civilizational turn in the broader context of imperial nationalism. The “turn” is a manifestation of imperial nationalism that today feeds not only on political ideas and history but also on geography. In the mass perception, geography is seen as an objective, non-ideologized scientific discipline less prone to political manipulation. Because of this, it can be employed to influence the Russian self-identification process in a much more subtle and efficient way than references to the more abstract notion of civilization. This article presents the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) as an identity entrepreneur managed by the ruling elite with a well-developed regional structure. It functions as a community of imperial practice. With its discursive and material practices, the RGS contributes to reproducing imperial nationalism, including in its civilizational version. The RGS is the keeper of the imperial body. By referring to the imperial body, I mean not just the physical territory but also the ways it is imagined in discourse and made material in numerous practices.

Mission saves us all: Great Russia and Global Britain dealing with ontological insecurity

International Relations, 2022

In this paper we analyse a situation wherein the political establishments of Russia and the Unite... more In this paper we analyse a situation wherein the political establishments of Russia and the United Kingdom, in the face of ontological insecurity, use narratives with messianic overtones in their foreign policies. Although these narratives do not feature prominently in the official discourse, they are nevertheless noticeable and provide a valuable insight into dynamics of national identity. We call them 'mission narratives' and interpret their (re)appearance in foreign policy as a reaction to a 'critical situation' which undermines the stability of the autobiographical narrative of both countries. Although different in scope and nature, the fall of the USSR and the Brexit referendum both resulted in the status and identity of the two states being questioned. Both countries reacted by emphasising their special role in the world. Referring to mission in foreign policy strengthens a coherent autobiographic narrative which soothes ontological uncertainties.

Alicja Curanović

Uploads

Papers by Alicja Curanović

Log In