ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book has traced the Putin regime's official discourse on state identity, its security priorities and its policy towards Chechnya/North Caucasus since Putin came to power in 2000. The chapter considers what implications can be drawn from this multifaceted and longitudinal approach to analysing Russian security policy, which treats domestic and foreign security policy as inherently interconnected, and traces the evolution and changes within security discourse over time respectively, for understanding Russia as a security actor. It discusses the theoretical insights that can be taken from this study. It is suggested that a more interpretivist, contextually-situated and longitudinal perspective is needed both to provide a more nuanced reading of the notions of weak and strong states within the existing international relations literature, and in the study of security in non-Western contexts.
