Russian Geopolitical and Economic Grammar: Sovereignty, Strategic Time, and Continuity under Systemic Fragmentation

Abstract

Contemporary international political economy is undergoing a profound epistemological transformation under conditions of geopolitical fragmentation, sanctions regimes, technological decoupling, and systemic uncertainty. Conventional paradigms emphasizing efficiency, optimization, and market integration appear increasingly insufficient for explaining contemporary state behavior. This article examines the evolving geopolitical and economic grammar underlying contemporary Russian statecraft and explores its implications for broader transformations in international political economy.
    Employing Strategic Discourse–Epistemological Analysis (SDEA), a qualitative interpretive methodology combining Strategic Discourse Analysis and Epistemological Analysis, the study analyzes official speeches, policy statements, and public presentations delivered by senior Russian political leaders and technocrats during periods of intensified geopolitical confrontation and economic restructuring.
   The findings reveal the emergence of a distinctive continuity-centered strategic grammar characterized by sovereignty, continuity preservation, strategic autonomy, systemic coordination, and long-term adaptation. The study further demonstrates that sovereignty is increasingly understood not merely as territorial control or juridical authority, but as the capacity to preserve systemic continuity across financial, technological, logistical, and institutional domains. In this context, the article proposes the concept of temporal sovereignty, defined as the capacity of states to govern developmental time while maintaining strategic autonomy under conditions of prolonged uncertainty.
   More broadly, the article argues that international political economy is experiencing an epistemological transition from efficiency-centered globalization toward a Continuity-Centered Political Economy (CCPE), in which continuity preservation, synchronization, temporal autonomy, and emerging forms of networked continuity governance increasingly constitute the principal organizing principles of contemporary statecraft.