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From Periphery to Centre: Ukraine’s European Union Candidacy in the Shadow of War

Nielsen, Christoffer LU (2023) STVM23 20231
Department of Political Science
Abstract (Swedish)
The full-scale Russian invasion fundamentally changed the context of the Ukraine-EU relationship and moved Ukraine closer to its European partners, culminating with candidate status in June 2022. This move is addressed within this thesis by looking into how President Zelensky used his speeches to claim the role of Ukraine as a rightful EU candidate and how the EU responded to this role claim before acknowledging Ukraine as an EU candidate. The thesis applies a five-step analytical approach that combines elements from critical discourse analysis and interactionist role theory to capture the discourse created by Zelensky to claim this specific role and how the EU interacts with that claim and discourse. The thesis suggests that Zelensky uses... (More)
The full-scale Russian invasion fundamentally changed the context of the Ukraine-EU relationship and moved Ukraine closer to its European partners, culminating with candidate status in June 2022. This move is addressed within this thesis by looking into how President Zelensky used his speeches to claim the role of Ukraine as a rightful EU candidate and how the EU responded to this role claim before acknowledging Ukraine as an EU candidate. The thesis applies a five-step analytical approach that combines elements from critical discourse analysis and interactionist role theory to capture the discourse created by Zelensky to claim this specific role and how the EU interacts with that claim and discourse. The thesis suggests that Zelensky uses various rhetorical instruments to create this discourse, which enable him to successfully claim the role of Ukraine as a rightful EU candidate. Whilst the EU utilises its existing enlargement discourse with focus on criteria and conditions when interacting with Ukraine’s application in public, traces can be seen of Zelensky’s discourse and argumentation. This reveals the strength of Zelensky’s role claim and discourse, but also how established the EU’s discourse on enlargement is. The thesis thus contributes to the existing literature on the Ukraine-EU relationship from an Ukrainian perspective, but also the greater literature on enlargement. (Less)
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author
Nielsen, Christoffer LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
From Periphery to Centre: Ukraine’s European Union Candidacy in the Shadow of War - Analysis of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Discursive Role Claim of Ukraine as a Rightful European Union Candidate Country and the European Union’s Reaction
course
STVM23 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Ukraine-EU relationship, Volodymyr Zelensky, enlargement, interactionist role theory, critical discourse analysis
language
English
id
9115497
date added to LUP
2023-08-27 16:27:58
date last changed
2023-08-27 16:27:58
@misc{9115497,
  abstract     = {{The full-scale Russian invasion fundamentally changed the context of the Ukraine-EU relationship and moved Ukraine closer to its European partners, culminating with candidate status in June 2022. This move is addressed within this thesis by looking into how President Zelensky used his speeches to claim the role of Ukraine as a rightful EU candidate and how the EU responded to this role claim before acknowledging Ukraine as an EU candidate. The thesis applies a five-step analytical approach that combines elements from critical discourse analysis and interactionist role theory to capture the discourse created by Zelensky to claim this specific role and how the EU interacts with that claim and discourse. The thesis suggests that Zelensky uses various rhetorical instruments to create this discourse, which enable him to successfully claim the role of Ukraine as a rightful EU candidate. Whilst the EU utilises its existing enlargement discourse with focus on criteria and conditions when interacting with Ukraine’s application in public, traces can be seen of Zelensky’s discourse and argumentation. This reveals the strength of Zelensky’s role claim and discourse, but also how established the EU’s discourse on enlargement is. The thesis thus contributes to the existing literature on the Ukraine-EU relationship from an Ukrainian perspective, but also the greater literature on enlargement.}},
  author       = {{Nielsen, Christoffer}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{From Periphery to Centre: Ukraine’s European Union Candidacy in the Shadow of War}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}