Foreign Policy as a drive for identity change?: Europeanization on the ground

The paper examines the case of post-Soviet states in the process of transition and international integration whose self-representations on the international arena are often contested in domestic contexts. The study is based on the case of Georgia, which is a distinguished post-Soviet country by its aspiration for international integration and more specifically, the EU membership justified by its European identity. Foreign policy discourse of Georgia is overwhelmed by ‘return to Europe’ goals, a cultural entity to which the country feels it intrinsically belongs. However, taking into account the Europeanization literature and one of its main findings that the process is primarily elite-driven in the post-communist countries, the paper tends to examine this claim for the case of Georgia. For this purpose, it studies discursive construction of European identity by Georgian political elites on the one hand and its reflection in the Georgian public on the other. In line with the constructivist theoretical argument of self/other nexus, paper analyzes elite construction of the Georgian European ‘self’ against external others with a particular focus on negotiating ‘European’ with ‘Georgian’ identity. Narratives of belonging and othering by the Georgian elites will be compared on three levels: personal attitudes (22 interviews), domestic reference (public speeches, statements, official documents) and international reference (speeches delivered to international audience). The paper expects to find that Georgian elites are constructing the self against both spatial (Russia) and temporal others (Soviet past), whilst ‘Europeanness’ is based on historical as well as future longing (Europe as a role model for development) to be part of Europe. On the other hand, elites are more assertive about Georgia’s belonging to Europe when referring to domestic or international audience, whilst privately acknowledging that Georgia wants to become part of Europe rather than it already is. On the other hand, public opinion polls (by CRRC, World Value Survey) will be thoroughly analyzed to find the extent to which this construction is reflected in the Georgian society. For this purpose, the paper will look at their identification with specific region and value basis for the belonging. The paper expects to find that even though majority of Georgians support EU integration, the identity basis for the support is rather lacking in comparison to the political elites.