CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Lenkauskaite, Liucija |
|---|---|
| Title | Cold War all over again? Analysis of NATO's discourse regarding Russia before and after the start of the crisis in Ukraine |
| Summary | After start of the Ukrainian crisis, various media outlets began comparing NATO-Russia relations to the Cold War. This thesis did not analyze the Cold War rhetoric, but sought to answer how NATO’s discourse regarding Russia changed one year before and after the start of the Ukrainian crisis. When trying to explain the different aspects of the official NATO discourse this work drew both on realist and constructivist theories. In the first part of the research the official NATO texts were analyzed using a mixed methods approach, comprising of descriptive statistics, as well as thematic, and discourse analyses. The quantitative part of the research showed that Russia was mentioned substantially more often after the conflict in Ukraine started. Qualitative analysis showed that NATO’s discourse about Russia mostly stayed diplomatically neutral: even though Russia has been opposed by NATO, it has not been referred to in an openly hostile manner. In addition, Russia has been referred to mostly as a fundamental security challenge, whereas the situation in the Middle East and North Africa has been referred to as a threat. In the second part of this research two interviews with NATO officials were obtained, and analyzed using a method critical frame analysis. Both respondents provided an avid disagreement with the New Cold War idea. Even though the current situation might have similar implications to the Cold War in terms of economic and military reality, it seems that Western officials are avoiding the creation of this concept and are thus careful with their discourse regarding Russia. |
| Supervisor | Borbala Kovacs |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/lenkauskaite_liucija.pdf |
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