December seminar series announcement

Geopolitics, (in)security and the EU’s evolving engagements in Armenia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war: a feminist perspective.

Presenter: Dr Laura Luciani, Ghent University,

Discussant: Dr Ariel Otruba, Arcadia University

Date: 13 December 2023
Time: 17:00-18:00 UK time

Abstract: Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calls for a ‘more geopolitical’ European Union have gained traction. While practitioners have welcomed this ‘geopolitical turn’ as a move towards more EU actorness on the global stage, critical scholars warn that it may strengthen gendered and racialised insecurities in international politics. This paper interrogates the EU’s ‘geopolitical turn’ by examining its external engagements in Armenia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Having historically played a peripheral role in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, over the past two years the EU has stepped up its conflict mediation profile and presence in Armenia – presenting itself as the only alternative to Russia’s conflict management. Drawing on the theoretical lens of feminist geopolitics, the paper explores the question of whose security is conceived of and protected by a ‘geopolitical EU’ in Armenia and how this is experienced and questioned by differently situated populations on the ground. First, zooming-in on the EU’s engagements in the conflict-affected Syunik province of Armenia, the paper unpacks how ‘security’ and ‘peace’ are enacted in EU policies and everyday life. Second, zooming-out on the macro-scale of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its reverberations in Armenia, the paper highlights how individuals on the ground contest geopolitical orders and the colonial logics therein. The paper is based on a fieldwork-based qualitative methodology combining interviews, multi-sited observations and the close reading of relevant policy documents, reports and (social) media sources.