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When performing even a cursory analysis of the visual image of contemporary Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, one simply cannot ignore its ancient history, the political influence of nearby powers and the almost age-old dependence on Soviet Russia. The regaining of independence in 1991, associated with the policy of then-national leader Heydar Aliyev, stimulated the young country's ambition to open up to the world and organise an international cultural event. The preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 initiated another construction boom in the history of Baku, fuelled with petrodollars, and became an occasion to present a new vision of the capital. In the years 2007–2012, numerous new cultural, artistic and sports buildings were constructed and which are now a hallmark and symbol of contemporary Baku. One such building, which creates a new, futuristic city space and is presented in the article, is the Heydar Aliyev Centre, a centre of art and museum designed by Zaha Hadid. The author notes the creative intent, external appearance and structure of the building, as well as new means of expression in creating place-based ambience. Also noted were the use of contemporary art in the creation of attractive utilitarian spaces. Other presented buildings display the ages-old symbols of the 'Land of Fire' in a new way and are embedded into the contemporary panorama of the city ; Analizując, nawet pobieżnie, wizualny obraz nowoczesnego Baku, stolicy Azerbejdżanu, nie sposób nie sięgnąć do jego starożytnej historii, politycznych wpływów sąsiednich potęg i prawie wiekowego uzależnienia od Rosji Radzieckiej. Odzyskanie niepodległości w 1991 r. związane z polityką ówczesnego przywódcy narodu Heydara Alijewa wyzwoliło w młodym państwie ambicję otwarcia na świat i budowania nowoczesnej stolicy w różnych wymiarach. Z takimi celami wiązało się dążenie do zorganizowania międzynarodowej imprezy kulturalnej. Przygotowanie Konkursu Eurowizji w 2012 r. uruchomiło kolejny w historii Baku boom budowlany, korzystający z petrodolarów i stało się okazją do prezentacji nowej wizji stolicy. W latach 2007 – 2012, zrealizowano wiele nowych obiektów kultury, sztuki i sportu, które są wizytówką i symbolem współczesnego Baku. Jeden z nich, kreujący nową, futurystyczną przestrzeń miasta przedstawiony w artykule, to niezwykle oryginalny obiekt kultury – centrum sztuki i muzeum Heydara Alijewa projektu Zahy Hadid. Wskazano na zamysł twórczy, wygląd zewnętrzny, konstrukcje obiektu, materiały budowlane i nowe środki wyrazu w kreowaniu nastroju miejsca. Zwrócono uwagę również na wykorzystanie sztuki nowoczesnej w tworzeniu atrakcyjnych przestrzeni użytkowych. Przywołano także inne obiekty prezentujące w nowej odsłonie odwieczne symbole "Ziemi Ognia", wpisane współcześnie w panoramę miasta.

This article studies the contentious problem of reification in international relations (IR) on the example of the idea of international society. It shows how the idea became reified, that is, how the move was made from approaching international society as one of several competing frameworks for the study of international politics to considering it an objective fact, a self-evident reality of international politics, and an entity in the possession of agency. For this purpose, I trace key writings of the English school and survey their contribution to the idea's development and gradual reification. I posit that reification has been the outcome of individual strategies and disciplinary practices pertaining to the knowledge production process, in particular the perceived need to establish and maintain a research program while continuing to provide viable explanations of world events. In discussing the consequences, I argue that reification adversely affects not only research outcomes but also the study process. A reified category, once it becomes a default language through which to think and talk about international politics, narrows down avenues for diverging interpretations of international politics. Furthermore, endowing international society with agency hides real agents behind specific actions in international politics.

AbstractThis article studies the contentious problem of reification in international relations (IR) on the example of the idea of international society. It shows how the idea became reified, that is, how the move was made from approaching international society as one of several competing frameworks for the study of international politics to considering it an objective fact, a self-evident reality of international politics, and an entity in the possession of agency. For this purpose, I trace key writings of the English school and survey their contribution to the idea's development and gradual reification. I posit that reification has been the outcome of individual strategies and disciplinary practices pertaining to the knowledge production process, in particular the perceived need to establish and maintain a research program while continuing to provide viable explanations of world events. In discussing the consequences, I argue that reification adversely affects not only research outcomes but also the study process. A reified category, once it becomes a default language through which to think and talk about international politics, narrows down avenues for diverging interpretations of international politics. Furthermore, endowing international society with agency hides real agents behind specific actions in international politics.

"International Society" published on by Oxford University Press.

The standard of civilisation served Western states to hierarchically organise international politics and reproduce Western pre-eminence. Russia, depending on the historical period, has been interpreted as either an ardent follower or a major challenger to Western projects, but it has been markedly absent from debates regarding the standard. This article proposes to engage Russia in the standard of civilisation discussion with reference to the standard's two most considered expositions: the colonial-era 'original' and what the literature interprets as the standard's contemporary revival. In order to do so, I trace Russia's nineteenth-century colonial practices and analyse Russia's selected policies towards post-Soviet states in the post–Cold War period. On the basis of these explorations, I argue that Russia's application of the standard of civilisation goes beyond the mere reproduction of hierarchical arrangements between an imagined centre and peripheries. The practices of the standard of civilisation have been employed to improve Russia's desired, and imagined, status in international politics – that of a great power equal to the West. From that it follows that the concept of the standard of civilisation should be recognised as ordering relations not only of the strong and the weak but also of those in position of power in international politics.

Following the end of the cold war and throughout the 1990s, Russia was described as the readily 'joining' international society. According to the English school perspective on IR, this meant that Russia was expected to adjust and accept the norms and rules established and propagated by mostly Western liberal states but hailed as common for the family of states. With Vladimir Putin's ascendance to power and Russia's economic recovery followed by Moscow's more assertive stance on global affairs, Russia was increasingly seen as the supporter of a pluralist vision of the international society, i.e. one characterized by limited cooperation, respect for sovereignty and non-intervention. These depictions ignored the fundamental differences in Russia's approach towards relations between states in the regional and global perspective. While on the global scale Russia cherishes norms of sovereignty and non-intervention, the regional realm has been subject to a variety of moves compromising the sovereignty of post-Soviet states. In the Commonwealth of Independent States, Russia has been ready and willing to engage in undermining states' sovereignty in a number of ways: attempting to establish a sphere of influence, directly intervening in a civil strives, policing borders, waging wars on 'humanitarian' grounds and stimulating separatisms, as well as undertaking less explicit interventionist activities of regional integration, security provision and development assistance. This article discusses these cases in order to make the point that Russia's approach to its most immediate neighbours cannot be subsumed under pluralist or solidarist vision of interstate relations. It highlights the difficulty to approach the Russian global-regional split using the conceptual apparatus of the English school and links it to a more perennial problem – that of the English school disregard for the specifics of post-colonial situations.