Explaining the EU’s failure in rallying world-wide support against the Russian invasion of Ukraine: emotional collective memories and international resonance

This paper examines why the European Union (EU) has failed to rally support and cooperation from the Global South following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite major violations of key international norms (non-aggression, sovereignty, and territorial integrity) of the rules-based liberal international order (LIO), which arguably serve the interests of countries in the Global South, most of them have been reluctant to condemn Russia. We argue that the EU and the Global South belong to different emotional communities, as they have different collective memories about past traumatic experiences, most notably colonialism. While the EU fails to properly acknowledge and address the grievances of colonialism, the Global South displays powerful emotions of resentment, leading to a lack of emotional resonance in the EU’s appeal. This constitutes a hindrance to mobilization and cooperation in support of what is perceived as a Western-dominated LIO. To show this, we conduct a discourse analysis of EU and Global South countries’ declarations, speeches, and documents from the invasion of Ukraine onwards. In doing so, we aim to contribute to the debate on Western/EU foreign policy in an increasingly contested LIO as well as to show the interweaving of historical legacies and emotions in EU foreign policy.