Contrasting Images of the European Union in Georgia
Abstract
The paper explores controversial representation of the European Union in the Georgian political public sphere through the deconstruction of public political narratives of the pro-Western and anti-Western/pro-Russian political and societal forces in Georgia. The dis-information incursion and propaganda of the Russian Federation in the societal landscape of Georgia – soft power capabilities of Moscow – have become the primary tools of the Kremlin to undermine the soft-power policy of the EU and the pro-Western/pro-EU driven agenda in Georgia. The study reflects on the rotating political discourses on the EU through narrative analysis and deconstructs those metanarratives, which legitimize or undermine the pro-Western foreign policy discourses in Georgia. The mutually exclusive metanarratives build on shared cultural values (the pro-Western) and religious commonality (the pro-Russian): the pro-Western – on the myth of Georgians as an ancient European nation and on the 200 years-long Russian colonization, embedded in symbolisms of “mental revolution” and “re-joining the European nations;” the anti-EU – on the Orthodox unity and on a belief that balanced politics between Russia and the West will restore country’s territorial integrity. This fact contributes to the fragmentation of the political public sphere in Georgia and makes it vulnerable to the external encroachments. The pro-Western narrative evolves around liberal conceptions, which try to transform the post-Soviet Georgian society through ‘mental revolution.’ The political discourse analysis – understanding and interpreting meanings – refers to public speeches of elites and policy documents for deconstruction of narrative structures provided by the pro-Western political elites, as their causal explanations provide insights into the ambiguous and contradictory representations of the West/EU in the Georgian political public sphere.References
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• Bechev, D., Nicolaidis, K. (Eds). (2010) Introduction: Frontiers, Memory, and Conflict in the Mediterranean, Mediterranean Frontiers: Borders, Conflict and Memory in a Transnational World. London: I. B. Tauris.
• Bennett, A. (2010) Process Tracing and Causal Inference. In: Brady H and Collier D (eds) Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards.2nd edition, Lanham, MD. Rowman and Littlefield, 207–219. http://polisci.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/people/u3827/Understanding%20Process%20Tracing.pdf (Accessed February, 2016).
• Civil Georgia (2004) ‘President Saakashvili's inauguration.’ available at: http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id¼26694 [Accessed 11 August 2016].
• Connaway L, Powell R (2010) Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 5th edn; Santa Barbara, California; Denver, Colorado; Oxford, England. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Cornell, S.E. (2018). The Impact of the Ukraine and Syria Conflicts on the Geopolitics of the South Caucasus, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 231-265
• Detector Media (2017). Kremlin Influence Index, 2017. (Retrieved from http://mdfgeorgia.ge/eng/view_research/5 17.12.2017)
• Dzvelishvili, N., Kupreishvili, T. (2015). Russian Influence on Georgian NGOs and Media. Tbilisi. Available at: www. damoukidebloba.com, with support of IDFI, June
• [EI-LAT] European Initiative – Liberal Academy Tbilisi.(2016) Threats of Russian Hard and Soft Power in Georgia, Tbilisi. Available at: http://www.ei-lat.ge/images/doc/threats%20of%20russian%20soft%20and%20hard%20power.pdf (Accessed August, 2016)
• Falkowski, M. (2016). Georgian Drift – The Crisis of Georgians Way Westwards. Centre for Eastern Studies, Working Paper 57, Warsaw.
• Ganz, M. (2016). What Is Public Narrative?, Organizing Notes, Charts and Reflection Questions. Organizing: People, Power & Change, Harvard University.
• Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2000). ‘Georgia and the world: A vision and strategy for the future.’ available at: http://www.bits.de/NRANEU/docs/CFE/GeorgiaStrategy.pdf. [Accessed 2 October 2016]
• Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006). ‘Foreign Policy Strategy (2006-2009)’ available at: http://mfa.gov.ge/index.php?sec_id¼8&lang_id¼ENG. [Accessed 2 October 2016]
• Gordadze, T. (2014). Georgia, LSE IDEAS, Reports, June 27. Available at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/publications/reports/pdf/SR019/SR019-Gordadze.pdf (Accessed August, 2016)
• Habermas, J., Lennox, S., Lennox, F. (1974). Entry on Jurgen Habermas. The Public Sphere Encyclopedia Article (1964). New German Critique, 3: 49-55.
• Jones, S.F. (2003). “The Role of Cultural Paradigms in Georgian Foreign Policy.” The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 19 (3): 83-110.
• Jones, S.F. (2004). ‘The Role of Cultural Paradigms in Georgian Foreign Policy’ in Fawn (ed.) Ideology and National Identity in Post - Communist Foreign Policies. London: London Frank Cass, pp. 83-110.
• Jones, S.F., Kakhishvili, L. (2013). “The Interregnum: Georgian Foreign Policy from Independence to the Rose Revolution.” In Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security, edited by Kornely Kakachia and Michael Cecire, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 13-40.
• Kakachia, K. (2013). European, Asian, or Eurasian?: Georgian Identity and the Struggle for Euro-Atlantic Integration. In: Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 41-52.
• Kakachia, K. & Minesashvili, S. (2015). Identity Politics: Exploring Georgian Foreign Policy Behavior. Journal of Eurasian Studies, (6), 171-180.
• Kakachia, et al. (2018). Introduction, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 6-17
• Karadag, Y. (2019). Georgian Europeanization: The Ideational and Institutional Analysis, Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Programe of Area Studies, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Middle East Technical University, 2019 https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622951/index.pdf.
• Lebanidze, B. (2016). Democracy under Stress: Western Fatigue, Russian Resurgence and Their Implications for Democratic Processes in Georgia. Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) Policy Paper, February, Tbilisi.
• Lutsevych, O. (2016). Agents of the Russian World - Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood. Research Paper, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House. April. (Retrieved from https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2016-04-14-agents-russian-world-lutsevych.pdf 30.06.2018)
• MacFarlane, N.S. (2015). Two Years of the Dream – Georgian Foreign Policy During Transition, Russia and Eurasia Programe, Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Research Paper, May, London.
• Mikhelidze, N. (2018). EU Global Strategy, Resilience of the East European Societies and the Russian Challenge, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 266-282
• Mitchell, L.A. (2004) Georgia’s Rose Revolution. Current History, 103 (675), 342- 348
• Nilsson, N. (2018). Russian Hybrid Tactics in Georgia, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. http://isdp.eu/content/uploads/2018/01/Russian-Hybrid-Tactics-in-Georgia.pdf (Accessed June, 2018).
• Nodia, G. (2005). ‘Breaking the mold of powerlessness: The meaning of Georgia’s latest revolution’ in Karumidze, Z. and Wertsch, J. V. (ed.) Enough! The rose revolution in the Republic of Georgia. New York: Nova Science, pp. 95-104.
• Nodia, G. (2010). Components of the Georgian national idea: an outline. Identity Studies, 1(1), 84-101
• Nodia, G. (2013). Divergent Interests: What Can and Cannot be Achieved in Georgian-Russian Relations. In Kakachia K and Cecire M (eds) Georgian Foreign Policy – The Quest for Sustainable Security, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 81-110
• Norman, F. (1995). Critical Discourse Analusis: The Critical Study of Language. Longman.
• Ó’Beacháin, D., Coene, F. (2014). Go West: Georgia's European identity and its role in domestic politics and foreign policy objectives. Nationalities Papers, 42(6), 923-941.
• Polyakova, A. (2016A), Putinism and the European Far Right, Institute of Modern Russia, 19 January. (Retrieved from http://imrussia.org/en/analysis/world/2500-putinism-and-the-european-far-right 01.03.2016)
• Raines, T., Goodwin, M., and Cutts, D. (2017). The Future of Europe – Comparing Public and Elite Attitudes. Research Paper. Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs, June (Retrieved from https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/publications/research/2017-06-20-future-europe-attitudes-raines-goodwin-cutts-final.pdf 26.12.2017)
• Simao, L. (2018). The Euroepan Union’s New Eastern Partnership Policy, in Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus, edited by Kakachia, K. Meister, S. Fricke, B. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Georgian Institute of Politics, German Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 18-44.
Published
2021-03-22
How to Cite
MATSABERIDZE, David.
Contrasting Images of the European Union in Georgia.
Politics / პოლიტიკა, [S.l.], mar. 2021.
ISSN 2449-2833.
Available at: <https://test.psage.tsu.ge/index.php/Politics/article/view/242>. Date accessed: 11 nov. 2024.
Issue
Section
სტატიები
Keywords
European Union, Georgia, Russia, Foreign Policy, Representation
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