Shame by David Keen

Author:David Keen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2023-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

The drive to dominate tends to diminish the “great power” status of others. And while democracies in Western Europe and the United States seem sensitive to their own feelings of shame around lost dominance (or at least determined to ward them off), a little more sensitivity to the shame of their rivals would encourage a different and ultimately more constructive approach. In Russia, the aggressive liberalization of the post–Cold War period led to a sharp escalation of poverty, and this came on top of the humiliating “defeat” in the Cold War and the fall of communism.65 Yet U.S. military expenditure remained close to Cold War levels, and NATO was not only retained but expanded eastward, contributing significantly to many Russians’ sense of humiliation and renewed encirclement. In these circumstances, Russian national pride has several times been violently and indeed viciously asserted. Taking post–Cold War history seriously is not about “excusing” Putin, which would certainly be a fool’s endeavor. At the same time, in international as well as national politics, there is always a pressing need to try to understand how things might be seen—and how shame might be experienced—by people other than yourself. In his more general discussion of foreign policy, Reinhard Wolf observes, “Just as with oxygen, being denied respect suddenly brings to the fore just how vital the ‘stuff’ actually is.”66 Putin’s manipulation of shame is also important to understand, as is his apparent shamelessness. A striking paradox is that Putin has brought more shame on himself—and by extension Russia—through his actions over Ukraine in particular. But we have seen many times in this book that shame-for-abuse tends not to deter those who are pushing back against shame-for-loss-of-power.

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