Description
This paper examines the influence of Russian governmental narratives about the war against Ukraine on the US New Right and in particular on the Trump administration and adjacent think tank and media discourses. It explores the ways that Russian narratives about the causes and course of the war and about the Ukrainian state, together with Russian historical myths about the origins of Russia and Ukraine and about the Second World War, have been reflected by the New Right, including by key figures in the Trump administration, including the president. It argues that the influence of these Russian narratives extends beyond policy on both the war and Ukraine to shape other areas of US foreign policy, providing discursive legitimation for radical departures from traditional US norms and past practices. The paper suggests that this adoption of both specific narratives and wider narrative practices from the Russian government reflects a rapid change in the direction of influence within the US-Russia relationship and an ideational rupture between the US and Europe, both of which are unprecedented in post-1945 international politics and which signal a fundamental change to the US identity and the character of its engagement with the world beyond its borders.
