The role of historical narratives in Ukraine’s policy toward the EU and Russia

Abstract

The article argues that policymakers often make use of historical narratives in order to underpin their foreign policy agenda. It duly explores how the structure of such a narrative is realized linguistically and illustrates this point by exploring a recent shift in Ukrainian foreign policy discourse. It is argued that in order to justify its pro-EU foreign policy agenda, the Ukrainian political leadership has promoted the understanding that Ukrainians have historical experiences that are similar to Europeans and different from Russians, and that this justifies Ukraine’s aspirations to distance itself from Russia and become an EU member.