Description
This paper proposes a theory of scapegoating in international politics and theorises how states use scapegoating to deal with self-resentment in the context of international socialisation. Where IR’s socialisation literature has largely overlooked the dynamic afterlives of international socialisation, this paper examines how states’ memory of their encounter(s) with international society shapes their subsequent politics. I suggest that many states, after having navigated international social hierarchy from below, remember their past socialisation efforts as a paradoxical double failure, as having 1) betrayed the state’s authentic identity by emulating international standards, but then 2) ultimately failing to adapt adequately, staying backward. I then argue that some states keep these memories of failure at bay using scapegoating, defined here as a particular type of Othering that externalises undesirable Self-parts, constituted after painful experiences like failed socialisation. The theoretical argument is illustrated through the case of Russia. The paper analyses Russia’s narrative about its 1990s (re-)encounter with ‘civilisation’ as this memory developed from 1999 and into the 2010s. I argue that Russia used Ukraine as a scapegoat for Russia’s painful failures in navigating international society, projecting the undesirable (‘Inauthentic’ and ‘Incompetent’) aspects of itself onto Ukraine.
