The EU and its Russian Other in the Ukrainian Crisis: Explaining Identity Change and Consolidation through Agency and Discursive Clashes

This paper investigates EU political leaders’ public statements on Russia during the crisis in Ukraine and relates them to European identity construction. Applying discourse-historical analysis, it explores the relevance of European historical narratives about the Russian Other to current foreign policy discourses and identity construction. It is argued that two main, long-standing discursive approaches to Russia exist among EU leaders: one portrays it as an economic and security partner, another constructs it as a competitor and a geopolitical threat, alien to European culture and civilisation. The paper exposes how the Ukrainian crisis contributed to the dominance of the latter approach, thereby providing EU politicians with an opportunity to steer and strengthen European identity in opposition to a negative, antagonistic Russian Other. From a theoretical point of view, the paper explains changes in identity as the result of the interaction between competing discourses that vie for dominance in the political arena. It argues that the dominance of a particular discourse is largely determined by how the Self chooses to relate to external, structural events (i.e. Russia’s policies in the Ukrainian crisis). Decision-makers’ agency plays an essential role in this respect. The empirical analysis shows that, within the national and European identity framework in which they are embedded, decision-makers have considerable room for maneuver and can choose to stress or downplay particular identity discourses depending on their political aims.