(En)Countering epistemic imperialism: A critique of “Westsplaining” and coloniality in dominant debates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

ABSTRACT

On February 24, 2022, the world was surprised by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, perhaps even more so, by Ukraine’s fierce resistance to it. In this article, we examine mainstream and feminist International Relations (IR) debates that have emerged in response to Russia’s invasion, as well as the older debates revived through them. Building on decolonial and feminist scholarship, prominently centering feminist debates from Europe’s East and Central Asia, we argue that dominant Western IR debates on Russia and Ukraine are shaped by inter-imperiality. We trace issues of epistemic injustice, epistemic imperialism and coloniality of knowledge production in mainstream IR and see them replicated in feminist debates, including from global South perspectives. We conclude with a contemplation on the structural changes warranted across academia to eliminate the coloniality of knowledge production about Ukraine and fellow societies as well as Indigenous nations affected by Russian colonial and imperial violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Epistemic imperialism
• coloniality of knowledge
• International Relations
• feminism
• Ukraine
• Russia

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors for valuable feedback on the earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In our discussion we build on the notion of agency as “the ability to make meaning and act in ways one cares about in the world,” as conceptualised by philosopher Serene Khader (2019).

2 In the context of debates on imperialism and genocidal violence that have affected Ukraine, it should be remembered that Nazi Germany attempted to swallow Ukraine and utilize it for Germany’s “Lebensraum” through territorial imperial expansion, extraction of agriculture and resources and a genocide of the Ukrainian population, of which several millions were killed by Nazis (Beyrau & Keck-Szajbel, 2012; Lower, 2005; Plokhy, 2015).

3 The authors have elaborated this argument in public talks over 2022–2023 and developed it in a book format in Popova and Shevel (2023).

4 The manifesto (Feminist Initiative Group, 2022) uses “women*” to acknowledge that gender oppression affects populations beyond cisgender women, such as LGBTIQ+ people.

5 Debates on the racialization and discrimination against Central Asians have intensified since the full scale invasion of Ukraine, which has raised questions over how welcomed people from Central Asia would be in Europe should their countries be re-occupied by Russia (Arystanbek, 2023). The severe limits of solidarity with racialized and predominantly Muslim populations harmed by Russian imperialism have already been shown in the hostility towards Syrians and need to be more systematically critically interrogated.

6 In summer 2023, the University of Manchester appointed Olga Onuch as “Professor in Comparative and Ukrainian Politics,” making her the first-ever holder of a Full Professorship in Ukrainian Politics in the English-speaking world and making the University of Manchester the first English language university to host such a Professorship (from https://olgaonuch.com/).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tereza Hendl

Tereza Hendl is Post-doc at the Institute for Ethics and History of Health in Society, University of Augsburg and Research Associate at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany).

Olga Burlyuk

Olga Burlyuk is Assistant Professor of Europe’s external relations at the Department of Political Science, the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

Mila O’Sullivan

Mila O’Sullivan is a Researcher at the Centre for Global Political Economy, the Institute of International Relations Prague (Czech Republic).

Aizada Arystanbek

Aizada Arystanbek is a Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Sociology, Rutgers University (USA).