Description
The social status of the state is a consistent subject of inquiry within international relations, but less so the role loneliness plays as a motivating or debilitating force. Sergei Akopov’s work on discourses of national loneliness provides an entry point to understanding how loneliness anxiety intervenes in Russian foreign policy, but the loneliness of other states, and how the trauma of past loneliness can impact states in the present, is under-researched. In this paper, I elaborate further on the concept of loneliness anxiety by engaging with actors for whom the specter of loneliness remains politically charged. I focus of Estonia and Finland: two states whose memory regimes include significant stories of abandonment. During WWII, Finland famously stood alone against the Soviet invasion when Western states refused to send aid during the Winter War. Estonia, meanwhile, was bartered in the Molotov Ribbentrop pact and left without allies or friends. These stories of abandonment have been activated and deactivated regularly since WWII, but recently a new phrase emerged in both states: “Never Again Alone.” This slogan became salient in both states when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. In Finland, it was used as a support for joining NATO. In Estonia, it was a reminder of why joining the EU was the right choice. In both cases, this phrase evokes a key moment in autobiographical time and is a reminder of what it means to be lonely. In this paper analyze how this phrase was used in the context of the war in Ukraine, what memories it evoked, and how the anxiety of loneliness remains pervasive in the narratives of the war. I argue that the trauma of loneliness is a key intervening factor for performing international, European identity in both states, and should be understood alongside other social factors within IR.
