Description
Capturing the political ramifications of the Ukraine war, the papers in this Panel examine the impact of international conflicts and alliances, focusing on how security, agency and political alignment is expressed and manifested. For decades, International Relations (IR) scholars have studied the process of security and foreign policy making. The literature on processual dimensions of foreign and security and foreign has focused on speech acts (Wæver 1992), party politics (Hoffmann and Martill; Tapio and Wagner 2020), or role conceptions (Thies 2012; Baciu and Wivel 2024). This Panel aims to unpack how security and foreign policy of states or international organizations is expressed and performed. The papers in this Panel discuss how states like Moldova navigate complexities between Russia, Romania, and the EU, highlighting the strategic balancing acts that small states perform for security and sovereignty. Further, the Panel explores Norway’s expressive aid to Ukraine, revealing discrepancies between symbolic gestures and practical support. Lastly, the Panel addresses the EU's sanctions on Russia, the politicization of the Ukraine war in European politics, and the role of party competition, each of which underscores how foreign and security policy manifests in the context of the Ukraine conflict.
