Leiden University Student Repository

Wouters, Sem (2026)

Managed Competition and Fragmented Control: Inter-Institutional Relations and Russian State Governance

Master thesis | Russian and Eurasian Studies (MA)

This research examines how relations among the Russian intelligence and security institutions (RISI) have influenced state governance between 2000 and 2022. By applying a novel theoretical framework which analyzes these relations using a categorical case study approach, it demonstrates that cooperation, competition, and conflict among the RISI constitute a recurring but context-dependent feature, varying across political, economic, institutional, and foreign operational domains. These behavioral patterns shape state governance by positioning the executive as a selective arbiter, inhibiting information flows, and enabling the instrumentalization of state institutions. Within this dynamic, these relations constitute a structural component of how executive power is both managed and fragmented in the contemporary Russian state.

Russia

intelligence

security

institutions

governance

Author

Wouters, Sem

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Scarborough, I.M.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en