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Speaker: Dr Yuri Stoyanov
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine since 2014 and the keen participation of high-ranking Russian Orthodox clerics of the Moscow Patriarchate in the theological and ideological justification of it have rekindled interest in the role of religion in world politics, geopolitical confrontation and military-strategic affairs. The progressive politicisation and militarisation of Russian Orthodoxy in the twenty-first century has been highlighted not only by the increasing role of the Moscow Patriarchate in state-building processes and Kremlin foreign-policy initiatives but also in the ecclesiastical endeavours to formulate and apply a new theology and ideology of just war to legitimise the newly evolving offensive strategies and belligerent/irredentist projects of the Russian Federation.
The Moscow Patriarchate's abortive and counter-productive experimentation with a “holy war” legitimisation of the initial stages of the Russian military intervention in Syria in 2015 have been followed since February 2022 and the unfolding of the Russian full-scale war on Ukraine by a distinct progression towards the outright adoption of a revamped “holy war” ideology, finally publicly declared in March 2024. This “holy war” promulgation demonstrates the central role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the promulgation of ideological and sacral legitimisation of the war on Ukraine, furnishing a potential blueprint for further Russian military and ecclesiastically sanctified expansionism.
These emerging and crystallising uses of religious rationale for offensive warfare and its dynamics and escalation or de-escalation have significant implications for the conceptualisation of new approaches and planning in the domains of foreign policy, national and international security which need to take into close consideration the changing nexus between religion, politico-military force postures and strategic affairs and cultures.
This event is a joint KCL/AFCC (Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre) venture.
Please note: This event will be held live online via Microsoft Teams, and in-person at the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre, Beckett House—Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.
In-person participation is limited to guests who have authorised access to the premises of the Defence Academy.
About the speaker: Based at SOAS, University of London, Dr Yuri Stoyanov’s current assignments include visiting professorships at several universities; his past assignments include Oxford, British Academy, and Wingate fellowships, as well as the Directorship of the British Academy CBRL's Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem. He has published widely on the interaction between Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the fields of ideologies of warfare and peace, sacred space, and apocalypticism, along with their current manifestations.
His publications include The Other God (Yale UP, London & New York, 2000), Defenders and Enemies of the True Cross (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna, 2011), and Fighting the Final Battle: Christian Ideologies of Apocalyptic Warfare (Yale UP, forthcoming), as well as chapters, articles, and anthologies of sources on Eastern Orthodox ideologies and theologies of war and peace.
At this event
Lecturer in Defence Studies
Event details
Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre, Beckett HouseDefence Academy, Shrivenham
Defence Academy of the UK, Shrivenham, Swindon SN6 8LA