Description
War narratives can impact the way states shape policies, characterize global politics, and interact with other states. In the case of the war in Ukraine, the conflict has deep roots in competing narratives of world order, memory contestation, and identity questions. This indicates the importance of ontological security in matters of conflict and cooperation, and similarly of the importance of storytelling and narrative alignment shaping the way actors see the world. This research cuts into both these questions by analyzing the way EU member states narrate the war, where they diverge from EU narratives, and how pillars of self-identity are used to justify or explain their actions.
Using Finland and Estonia as case studies, I show not only that the narration of the war has changed over time, but also that key autobiographical narrative elements have been activated and deactivated to maintain a coherent sense of self during the crisis. I do so by developing an analytical framework that uses the core pillars of ontological security: significant relations, identification, autobiography, home. Ultimately this research demonstrates that ontological security questions, and narratives that emerge therefrom, have a real impact on global politics and our understanding of security in the international system.
