Relational Topologies: Geopolitical Narratives of Civil Society Organisations in the EU Borderlands

This paper examines the role of strategic narratives in the context of the European Union’s geopolitical turn. Focusing on the narratives surrounding Georgia's EU candidacy application, it explores how the diverse framings function in a geopolitical setting. The analysis unfolds in four parts. First, it discusses the ‘return of geopolitics’ and the process of geopoliticisation as the backdrop for the study. Second, it introduces the conceptual triangulation based on strategic narratives, relationality, and bordering practices, and explores how social relational theories can contribute to the pluralistic understanding of emerging narratives. Third, through engaging with Georgia’s EU candidacy application process, it analyses how civil society organisations challenge the EU's geopolitical interpretations of Georgia’s candidacy and shape strategic narratives through geopoliticisation. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing how these narratives and bordering practices create alternative relational topologies.