CC BY
16
17. Silant'ev P.A. International Policy Russian muftiatesv noveyshiy period [P. Silantev. The international policy of the Russian Mufti in the latest period] // Bulletin of Moscow State University lingvisticheskogo. Number 2. 2014, pp. 173— 182.
18. Habutdinov A.Y. Vsego odin mesyats mart: RossiyaiKrym [A. Habutdinov. Just one month of March: Russia and the Crimea] // Medina al-Islam. 2014, № 149. 16 May.
19. Kharkevich M.V., Kasatkin P.I. Biopolitika i religiya v epohu post-modern [M. Harkevich. Kasatkin P.I. Biopolitics and religion in the era post-moderna] // Bulletin of MGIMO (U). 2011. № 6, paragraphs. Pp. 217-222.
20. Yakunin V.K., Sulakshin S.S., Simonov V.V. et al. Social partnership of religious organizations and the state. [Yakunin, S. Sulakshin., Vladimir Simonov, and others. Sotsialnoe partnerstvo religioznyh organizatsiy i gosudarstva] - Moscow: Scientific expert, 2009. - 232 p.
"Islam v sovremennom mire: Vnutrigosudarstvennyii mezhdunarodno-politicheskiy aspekt", Moscow, 2015, Vol. 11, № 2.
O. Shevchenko,
Ph.D. (Philosophy), Associate Professor, the Institute of Sociology and Regional Studies of Southern Federal University (Rostov-on-Don) XENOPHOBIA AS AN AGENT OF THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY OF STATES AND POLITICAL STABILITY IN THE BLACK SEA-CASPIAN REGION*
The realities of the modern world show two divergent major trends. On the one hand, attempts to create a unified world community are being made, integration processes are gaining momentum and on the other hand disintegration and chaos in the world are growing. These
* The article is written in the framework of the internal SFU grant No. 213.01-07-2014/15 part of the internal project grant "Threats to national security in the conditions of geopolitical competition and models of hostile and aggressive behavior of youth."
trends are affecting almost all the regions of the world, including the Black Sea-Caspian region.
The countries of the Black Sea-Caspian region, differ both by size of territories, population and ethnic composition population and cultural identity, where the religious factor is of key importance.
Modern problems of the Black Sea-Caspian region are due both to internal contradictions of social development of its member countries, and geopolitical interests of several countries of the Middle East and the USA. Their natural consequence is actualization of xenophobia that has both protection and manipulative functions in the region.
Scientific literature regards xenophobia as rather a complex and contradictory phenomenon: on the one hand, it appears as socio-psychological protection of an individual and a group in the unpredictable and dangerous world, and on the other hand - as an element of political technologies, designing a particular image of an outsider to achieve specific goals [14].
Xenophobia in the Black Sea-Caspian region has external and internal foci associated with the location of its objects. G. Eiserman rightfully highlighted two basic vectors of the focus of xenophobia: chauvinism addressed against another state, and diasporic phobia aimed against national minorities within the country. According to the German sociologist both chauvinism and diasporic phobia are associated with the need to preserve national dignity, economic development and social security of the indigenous population and directed primarily against outsiders [11].
External xenophobia has most often an impact on the state ideology seeking to assert the statusness, the sovereignty of the state or the people by all means, including violence, e.g., by occupation or bringing under control foreign territories. Internal xenophobia shows
not only in diasporic phobia, but also in migrantophobia, which most often results from socio-economic problems in society. Negative attitudes of the migrants themselves or their descendants to indigenous population can also be attributed to internal xenophobia [5].
The main manifestations of external xenophobia in the Black Sea-Caspian region are Americanophobia, Russophobia and Islamophobia.
The studies of various aspects of modern Americanophobia can be found in the works of V. Bainev, V. Vinnik, Z. Vidovich, O. Shevchenko, et. al. [3]. According to the authors, Americanophobia reflects the current negative attitudes in respect of the political and economic systems of the US, value, ideological and moral attitudes of the American nation, i.e. rejection of the United States as a nation state and of its cultural foundations.
The reason of formation of such stereotypes in public conscience is associated with focusing of the U.S. interests at major world regions [5, 4], including the Black Sea-Caspian region. America pinpoints hostile States and pursues them using a wide range of means: use of military force for overthrowing the legitimate authority and replacing it with a Pro-Western regime (Iraq), economic sanctions for weakening global and regional influence (Russia), political and economic pressure aimed at curtailing the national nuclear program (Iran).
In its pursuit to world domination the U.S. impose upon other States its own rules of the game, trying to remove undesirable states from the political arena, violate the balance of interests. All these actions are, of course, strongly resisted. Trying to make the U.S. a sort of the second Roman Empire, its leaders divide peoples and states into "friends of Rome" and "enemies of Rome" (i.e. Washington. - O. S.) using double standards in relation to both.
S. Huntington underlines the discreteness of the principles declared by the policy of the West and their practical implementation. The U.S. is hypocritical, using double standards in its political activity: "...yes, democracy should be promoted, but no, not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power; yes, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is a very proper thing, if Iraq and Iran are in question, but no when it comes to Israel... aggression against the oil-rich Kuwaitis must be given a rebuff, but it is quite another cup of tea if we are talking about aggression against the Bosnians, who, alas, have no oil..." [13, p. 151].
Under the pretext of spreading "democracy" and "human rights" the US reconstruct the political map of the Middle East using military methods. A number of Mid-Eastern states belong to the Black Sea-Caspian region. According to an expert in Islam G. Fuller, spreading democracy is not the focus of the U.S. policy in the Islamic world, it pursues its own objectives: ensuring uninterrupted energy supplies from the region, security of Israel, non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons, combating terrorism, preventing the emergence of any regional hegemon [1, p. 213].
Implementation of such a policy inevitably leads to creation of a new field of political and ideological tension. The challenges the U.S. launched against the rest of the world, lead to emergence of diverse forms of "answers".
The unilateral and aggressive character of the United States policy is encouraging creation of opposition movements, whose ideology is based solely on Americanophobia, actively designing "the enemy image" in the person of the United States. In this connection it will be rightful to regard the today Americanophobia (in particular, at the political level) as a reaction, first of all, to the imperial arrogance of the superpower, interpreting the norms of international law very loosely. The policy of the U.S. hegemony causes natural anxiety of the
major regional powers (Russia, China, India, etc.) and a number of European states, as well as resistance of many third world countries.
In the context of a unipolar world the international security structure is, in fact, a set of alliances and blocks, directly or indirectly controlled by the United States. Relying on its military power and availability of allies, the United States believes that it can use its armed forces for the purposes of coercion practically with impunity and no risk of retaliation from the part of other states [12]. However, American military pressure over other countries, forcible democratization under the Western scenario cause a serious reaction, contributing to the emergence of the new enemies of the U.S. In spite of its potential, the U.S. is still unable to forcibly change special civilizational features of countries and regions, and for this reason the American geopolitical ambitions cause countertendencies. Thus, for example a new center of Eurasian regionalism is forming up in the Black Sea-Caspian region and the main political actors of it are Russia, Turkey and Iran.
Thus, the tendencies of world development, caused mainly by the geopolitical strategy of the United States, result in developing of Americanophobia as a specific method used by states for protection of their national interests.
Along with Americanophobia Russophobia is becoming a fairly stable form of xenophobia in some countries of the Black Sea-Caspian region
Actualization of modern Russophobia and Russophobic discourse is based, first, on the hegemony of the US; second, on the strategies of the commodity problem solution by the global center (the countries of "gold billion") at the expense of military/non-military capture of resources of the peripheral countries; third, the ongoing process of building national states in the post-Soviet space (Georgia, Ukraine) and the development of their national identity.
Designing "the enemy image", the Western mass-media rely on various stereotypes associated with Russia. Russia is accused not only of bloody crimes in the past and at present, but also of nurturing sinister plans for the future. The main task of the Western media is to convince the world community in the revival of the Russian Imperial ambitions, its focus on the occupation of foreign territories and possible military threat on its part for the countries of the new united Europe, especially the Baltic States.
The strategic goal of information warfare, actively using Russophobia, are: expulsion of Russia from the global political arena and its inclusion in the list of the so-called rogue states, dehumanization and demonization of the image of Russia in public conscience.
Russophobia is most actively used as a political tool where the US interests collide with the interests of other states. Thus, Georgia, belonging to the Black Sea-Caspian region became, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the arena of struggle between continental and Atlantic forces. The economic and political weakening of Russia in the late 20 has led to the fact that Georgia, in an effort to dissociate itself from the common political, cultural and historical past, has taken a tough anti-Russian stance. Such trend of events was due both to the influence of the US, which took the state under its control, and the development of Georgian nationalism, striving to create its own national state.
Coming of pro-American politicians to power in Georgia, and political building of the Georgian nation were accompanied by aggressive Russophobia.
Today, Georgia is consistently implementing the course for eurointegration and accession to NATO membership. A new step is attempted defense cooperation at the regional level including, in addition to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, the latter already linked
with the North Atlantic military alliance. Thus, each party has its own advantages in establishment of such a coalition: Georgia - protection against "Russian threat", Azerbaijan - isolation of Armenia from Russia in case of escalation of the conflict in Nagorny Karabakh, Turkey - consolidation of its influence in the South Caucasus, previously fully owned by Russia.
A number of anti-Russian geopolitical projects are under way in the North Caucasus, among them experts have identified the three most dangerous ones for the national and regional security of Russia: the Western project (especially American), the Arab-Islamist (Wahhabi) project and the Turanian (Turkish) projects [6]. The Western project is the leading one, and the other two, despite their relative autonomy, are actively supported by the US and its allies. As the result, separatism, nationalism, religious fanaticism are constantly heated up in the region, sources of tension arising from overlapping territorial claims hold for long. In the past fifteen years religious and ethnic factor has been in most frequent use.
Stirring up Russophobic sentiments is contributed to by to the protracted political crisis which is currently taking place in Ukraine. Russia is accused of annexation of the Crimea and military and economic assistance to the residents of Donbass of separatist sentiment, i.e, in fact, of the collapse of the state and the attempts to separate from Ukraine its South-Eastern part. In our opinion, Russophobia in Ukraine is partly triggered by both Western and local political establishment and is partly a consequence of the traditional cultural and religious heterogenity of the country: the Ukrainian-speaking Uniate and Catolic West and the Russian-speaking Orthodox East.
Since the autumn of 2013 the situation with Russophobia in the Black Sea-Caspian region has aggravated significantly in connection
with the Ukrainian crisis, and then a new phase of the anti-terrorist campaign in the Middle East with military involvement of Russia.
In addition to Russophobia, in the Black Sea-Caspian region there had been a rise of Islamophobia that is associated currently with growing activity of the terrorist organization ISIS.
It is important to note that contemporary Islamophobia is acquiring specific features depending on ideological attitudes of the analyst.
A radical view of the Islamic threat is generally associated with liberals, identifying themselves with the so-called Westerners. For them Islam is the embodiment of rebellious archaism, barbarity that has attacked the civilized Western world and its system of values. The development of liberalism is perceived by Westerners as a fight against backwardness, barbarity, i.e. as a fight against "anti-West" [11, p. 21]. The part of the latter until recently has been played by communism, and currently - by Islam.
The conservative position in regard to Islam comes down to the fact that, first, Islam is not regarded as an independent threat to the security of the region but is derived from other threats. Second, Islam is not perceived as an integral religious system but rather as an aggregate of various trends. It is most often divided into two different Islams - traditional Islam and Wahhabism [11, p. 22]. In the framework of the conservative position Islam in general is not regarded as an enemy: "good" Muslims are separated from "bad" ones, so Islamophobic nature of these arguments is, at first sight, quite unobvious. However, clear criteria which could help to distinguish "good" Islam from "bad" Islam have not been formulated clear so far. Any attempt to create such criteria will inevitably affect its fundamentals. The contemporary Islamophobia, in our opinion, is mostly of politically opportunistic nature: it becomes more active in the
rhetoric of politicians, when they turn to the West, appealing to the circles scared by "international terrorism" or "...use the bogeyman of "Islamic threat" to their political interests" [11, p. 25].
Global and regional mass media are playing its part in actualization of Islamophobia. In the press and on television real difficulties regarding relations with the Moslem world began to transform rapidly into a frightening mass media product, with the consequence that the Islamic factor was hyperbolized. This has formed in the public mind the idea of Islamic, not Islamist threat that does exist in fact.
The distinction between these two concepts has been recognized quite recently. Islam, like any other religion, does not in itself carry a threat to the world and society: "...the threat... appears only when Islam ceases to be a religion and starts to be used as a political ideology, which is designed to capture power in certain countries, regions or on a global scale in the name of creation of the future World Caliphate" [10, p. 119]. This is confirmed by the already mentioned activities of ISIS, which includes not only adherents of radical Salafist (Wahhabi), but also traditional Islam and Baathists, advocating, in essence. for development of a secular state [7, p. 50]. However, the activity of the group is destructive, it challenges the prevailing political, economic social and cultural foundations of the region, since it is determined by militant Islamism.
Concluding the consideration of Islamophobia in the Black Sea-Caspian region, I would like to note: the countries belonging there have never been homogenous in religious terms. Moreover, the population of even one country was rarely committed to any single religion. Therefore, the desire of some politicians to create "the enemy image" in the person of the Islamic world as it is, but not the radical Islamist
ideology, contributes to disintegration of the countries of the Black Sea-Caspian region, having different religious identities.
Along with external xenophobia aimed at other States and regions, various kinds of internal xenophobia (ethnic, religious, mixed) exist also in the countries of the Black Sea-Caspian region .
The appraisal of internal xenophobia is due to a combination of socio-psychological, economic, political and actually social factors prevailing in the society.
Socio-psychological factors underlying xenophobia, are associated primarily with the need of an individual for the group identity and intergroup comparison; the sense of danger from the outside, which is represented not only by natural forces but also by the presence in the world of other communities; with the state of frustration and deprivation, accompanied by emotions of fear, contempt, anger, disgust, envy. In fact, these socio-psychological factors of formation of xenophobia are a set of severe social conditions and negative psychological feelings, expressing a state of fear experienced by the group, before real or potential threats, as well as resentment of a social group over the current situation. Socio-psychological factors of internal xenophobia are derived from economic, political and social conditions that have developed in the society.
The economic factors that generate internal xenophobia, include, primarily, competition for natural resources, which, unfortunately, are of a limited nature, and the desire to possess any material goods. Economic factors in turn are closely linked with political and social ones. The part of the political factor forming internal xenophobia can be assigned to the struggle for political power and certain advantages it provides, for example, the ability to provide group security, status positions or access to material goods.
The social factor in the formation of internal xenophobia is represented by the presence in society of ethnic and social stratification, in the result of which ethnic groups find themselves at different levels of the social ladder owing to its ethnic origin, etc [13].
In our opinion, it is internal xenophobia that becomes the downside of actualization and even exaggeration of the identity problem. Since ethnic and religious identity have the major relevance in some countries of the Black Sea-Caspian region, their growth and amalgamation are inevitably accompanied by manifestation of various kinds of ethno-national and ethno-religious phobias. Turkish-Kurdish relations are an example of sustainable inner ethno-national phobia .
According to researchers, the cause of aggravation of these problems within Turkey is Kurdish ethno-nationalism, progressing partly because of persecution and pressure over the Kurds on the part of the state. Various forms of discrimination and oppression of the Kurds are based on the idea that the Kurds are "outsiders". The range of the idea of their otherness is rather wide: from views that the Kurds are "the Turks who have lost their own cultural identity" [8, p. 99], to their exclusion from the Turkish nation. Despite the fact that the Kurds are Muslims, the Turkish political and public discourse treats them as an instrument in the hands of external forces wishing to destabilize and divide the country.
Escalation of conflicts in the countries of the Black Sea-Caspian region traditionally depends to a large extent on the religious component. It gave a special poignancy to the many years' conflict between Shia Iran and Sunni Iraq, but even today, Muslim Sunnis living in Iran, according to the UN, are exposed to various forms of discrimination from the overwhelming majority of the population i.e. Shiite Muslims. Although religious confrontation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims is lasting for more than a thousand years, this conflict,
according to experts, is the greatest threat to security in the region. In the context of severe geopolitical struggle for leadership in the Middle East religious xenophobia is an effective tool of political mobilization of social groups. Thus, Iran is an ally of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who belongs to one of the Shiite sects, while Sunni countries of the Persian Gulf and Turkey support Syrian rebels, many of whom are Sunnis. Therewith, the political confrontation of the countries of the region is veiled by religious motives.
From our point of view, religion performs the part of a tool in destabilizing the situation in the region. With its help the boundaries between friend and foe worlds are being erected once again, and different political forces use religion for justification of territorial or other claims and use of violent methods.
Taking all the above said into consideration, one may come to certain conclusions. In terms of modern geopolitical transformations associated with the redistribution of zones of influence in the Black Sea-Caspian region, the xenophobia of various etiologies is becoming an effective political technology and is being used by various forces for ensuring influence and lobbying of their interests at both global and regional levels.
References
1. Fuller G.E. The Future of Political Islam. - N.Y., 2003, p. 227.
2. Abashin S.N. Islamopobia // Gumanitarnaya mysl Yuga Rossii. 2005. No 1, pp. 20-26
3. Baynev V.F., Vinnik V.T. Sistema neokolonizatsii XXI veka [System of neocolonisation of the XXI century] // Novaya economica. 2009. No 5, pp. 3-11; Vidoyevich Z. Globalizaciya, xaotizaciya i konflikty v sovremennom mire // [Globalization, chaotization and conflicts in the modern world // Sotsiologicheskiye issledovania. 2005. No 4, pp. 25-32; Amerikanofobiya v period globalnyh transformatsij mirovogo razvitiya [Americanophobia in the period of world development global transformations] // Etnosocium i mezhnacionalnaya kultura. 2013. No 8 (62), pp. 162-180
4. Vyalyh N.A., Lubsky V.A., Posuhova O.Yu. Natsionalnaya integratsiya i mezh-ehtnicheskie otnosheniya v SSHA i FRG kak predmet nauchnyh issledovanij v Rossii. [National integration and inter-ethnic relations in the United States and Germany as a subject of scientific research in Russia] // Sotsialno-gumanitarnye znaniya. 2015. No. 7, pp. 8-17.
5. Degtyarev A.K. Upravlenie migratsionnymi potokami v SSHA: politika snizheniya konfliktogennogo potentsiala [Management of migration flows in the USA: policy of reducing conflictogenic potential] //Bulletin of Adyghe state University. Regional studies: philosophy, history, sociology, law, political science, cultural studies. 2015. No. 4.
6. Dobaev I.P. Diskursivnye praktiki geopoliticheskoj identifikatsii Rossii v usloviyah globalizatsii i regionalizatsii. [Geopolitical discursive practices of identification of Russia in conditions of globalization and regionalization]. URL: http://www.geopolitika.ru (reference date: 21.09.2015).
7. Evseev V., Zimin Yu. Perspektivy "Islamskogo gosudarstva [Prospects of the "Islamic State"]" // Obozrevatel-Observer, 2015. No. 26, pp. 43-56.
8. Kudryashova Y.S. O roste znacheniya kurdskogo faktora v usloviyah menyayushchegosya Blizhnego Vostoka [Increasing importance of the Kurdish factor in the changing Middle East] // IMI Yearbook. 2014. Vol. 2(8), pp. 94-105.
9. Lubskiy A.V., Degtyarev A.K., Vyalyh N.A. Modeli i praktiki natsional'noj integratsii v SSHA, N. And. Models and practice of national integration in the USA // Sotsialno-gumanitarnye znaniya. 2015. No. 11.
10. Pasandide S. Islamizatsiya politiki i politizatsiya islama // [Islamization of politics and politicization of Islam] // Vlast. 2013. No. 1, pp. 117-119.
11. Refer to: Pomeranz G. Kto takie chuzhaki? [Who are the outsiders?] // Psihologiya natsionalnoj neterpimosti. - Minsk, 1998.
12. Frolov A.S., Posohova O.U., Serikov A.V. Otrazhenie tsennostnoj politiki v sfere mezhehtnicheskih otnoshenij v SMI SSHA [Reflection of the value policy in the sphere of inter-ethnic relations in the U.S. media] // Istoricheskaya i sotsialno-obrazovatelnaya mysl. 2015. No. 6.
13. Huntington S. Clash of Civilizations. - Moscow, 2003. - 603 p.
14. Shevchenko O.M. Metodologiya konstruktivizma v sotsial'no-filosofskom issledovanii ksenofobii [Methodology of constructivism in the social and philosophical study of xenophobia] // Teoriya i praktika obshchestvennogo razvitiya 2013. No. 11, pp. 30-34.
"Gumanitarij Yuga Rossii", Rostov-on-Don, 2015, No. 4, pp. 200-210
