Abstract How did a three-day “special military operation” become four years and counting of near-total war? Analyses emphasize a number of factors prolonging the conflict, but these do not fully grasp the resonant phrases and symbolic performances that helped Vladimir Putin’s regime initiate, perpetuate, and expand the full-scale invasion of Ukraine into something akin to a total wartime footing in everything but name. This contribution to the symposium on ritual action in world politics develops an argument about how a powerful nation-state justifies and extends a new time of war without legally declaring war or, indeed, even uttering the word “war” itself. Proposing a ritualized wartiming framework based on elite incantations, evocative social practices, and a venerable liturgy of national triumph, it traces how Russia narrated the SMO as a response to an existential and spiritual crisis that must be answered by extraordinary measures and exceptional sacrifices—and which could only conclude in decisive victory. Drawn from close readings of three years of elite remarks and analyses of ceremonies like the annual Victory Day Parade, the paper shows how Russia inaugurated a new form of wartime to authorize and continuously legitimate its SMO in Ukraine. It also highlights the dangerous potential of such ritualized wartiming to outgrow its initial rhetorical remit, to search for new monsters to slay, and to evolve from formalized wartiming toward a more continuous, de facto form that makes wartime’s exceptions the self-perpetuating “normal” time of politics.
Andrew R. Hom (Thu,) studied this question.