Russian conflict management has been understood as being ‘quintessentially Russian’. This project demystifies this reading. By exploring Russia’s approach from the early 1990s to the end of Medvedev’s presidency in mid-2012, the thesis answers the following question: to what extent has Russia’s behaviour corresponded with security governance as understood in the literature and practiced by other European actors? The argument is that Russia has selectively engaged in the norms and processes of security governance developed in European conflict management. This is driven by a policy that combines the defence of its sovereignty/national interests with a declared commitment to collective decision-making and policy implementation in European security governance. The framework of security governance is employed to examine Russia’s behaviour across its regional space and the wider European neighbourhood, and to ‘map’ its behaviour in accordance with the evolution of European security governance. Using multi-case study analysis and relying on documentary evidence, supported by semi structured interviews, the thesis makes the following contributions. First, it offers a thorough empirical inspection of Russian conflict management. Second, it contributes to the debate on Russia and European security governance, and adds to the discipline of Security Studies by demonstrating the conceptual purchase of security governance
