DYNAMICS OF THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN DEBATES ON EURO-ATLANTIC INTEGRATION
Keywords:
discourse analysis, Euro-Atlantic integration, national identity, paradox approach, qualitative methods, UkraineAbstract
This paper analyses changes of meanings of identity in competing projects of national identity in case of debates among the Ukrainian elites on the issue of Euro-Atlantic integration in 2008 and 2018. The author identifies three projects of identity, which are based on a different understanding of foreign policy in relation to Euro-Atlantic integration. The most significant change of identity is the dominant position of the pro-Euro-Atlantic discourse that was contested in 2008 by the opponents of NATO membership. However, after the transformation of the political context in Ukraine in the post-2014 period, some representatives of the elites continue to support the project of identity in which Ukraine is constructed as a non-bloc state. In both periods the elites reach a consensus on Ukraine's representation as a European and democratic country. Despite changes in the domestic and international contexts, discursive representations of Ukraine as a victim and a colonial state, where Russia or the United States presented as aggressors and colonizers, continue to exist. The changes in dynamics of national identity are as follows: expansion of an identity representation on a larger audience, a “shift” of a representation into another category within the same discourse, and “borrowing” and adoption of a representation by competing identity discourses.DOI: 10.17072/2218-1067-2021-2-59-70References
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