*Originally published in 2025 and preserved as part of our archive project.Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work.

In September 2022, during a theatrical address at the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin exclaimed: “And all we hear is, the West is insisting on a rules-based order. Where did that come from anyway? Who agreed to these rules?” In front of a carefully selected audience and in the context of the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories, Putin did more than challenge Western foreign policy—he rejected the normative legitimacy of the liberal international order altogether. He described Russia not merely as a nation-state but as “a thousand-year-old civilization”.

Putin's words are not unique in today’s multipolar world. Leaders like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Xi Jinping, and even Narendra Modi have revived and reformulated civilizational narratives to justify global ambition and domestic legitimacy. These appeals to ancient identity and moral exceptionalism are not merely rhetorical flourishes; they represent a systematic shift in how key non-Western powers engage with the world. Through what we might call "civilizational revisionism", these actors reject the universality of Western values and institutions, instead proposing alternative normative frameworks grounded in their own cultural and historical legacies.

The resurgence of civilization as a unit of analysis in international relations theory recalls Samuel Huntington’s controversial "clash of civilizations" thesis. While Huntington’s essentialism rightly drew criticism, his anticipation that culture and identity would shape geopolitical conflict has found renewed relevance. Today, however, it is not a “clash” but a “recasting” of international order that is underway. Rather than viewing civilizations as passive, immovable blocs, revisionist leaders now “actively mobilize civilizational discourse” to challenge the........

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