A Show of Force: The Ritualization of Russian Strategic Posturing in the Baltic Sea

This article studies military exercises as tools of strategic posturing, understood here as physically embodied, spatially configured, and visually defined coercive signaling action which commonly entails symbolic attributes. By identifying the modalities of ritualization involved in the conduct of military exercises, the article unfolds how these modalities render military activity a politically meaningful action and contribute to the construction of the displayed capabilities as credible deterrent. I argue that the spatial emplacement of strategic posturing is a key element for credibility in general deterrence. This proposition is empirically grounded in the examination of Russian naval exercises in the Baltic Sea in the years 2022–2025. The analysis accentuates how Russian strategic posturing engaged spatiality to project and sustain credibility vis-à-vis NATO as the security tensions between two actors increasingly manifest in the maritime domain.