The Russia–West Conflict Through the Lens of Strategic Culture

The purpose of this study is to explain the conflict between Russia and the West through the phenomenon of strategic culture. The article identifies two opposing types of strategic culture: realist and liberal. In societies where both the population and elites feel an internal or external threat to their existence, a realist strategic culture tends to prevail. In the absence of such threats, a liberal strategic culture develops. Interaction between states with opposing strategic cultures is fraught with challenges such as deadlocks in dialogue due to incompatible fundamental values, misunderstandings, and aberrant decoding of signals from the counterpart. Russia’s strategic culture is predominantly realist, while the strategic culture of the West is largely liberal, albeit with elements of realism. The results of the study indicate that Russia’s realist strategic culture clashes with the liberal strategic culture of Western countries, leading to divergent positions on key issues such as the preferred structure of the international system, interpretations of “color revolutions,” NATO open door policy, and the emergence of aberrant decoding effects in discussions on Russia’s spheres of influence and domestic policy, and NATO’s eastward expansion. The study suggests that a complete resolution of the contradictions in foreign policy values and perceptions is possible only through a transformation of the strategic culture of one or both sides, which would require changes in socio-economic and geopolitical conditions.