How the EU and Russia Narrate the World

Struggling for Recognition

Mario Baumann

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
25 July 2025

Peace studies & conflict resolution; Political science & theory; EU & European institutions

Series: New International Relations

In times of increasing challenges to ‘the Western idea,’ this book illuminates how Russian and EU foreign policy discourses interact. While official Russian and EU articulations on issues of sovereignty, human rights and the shared neighbourhood diverge greatly, they are not articulated in isolation but are entangled and condition each other. To understand this entanglement, this book approaches the relationship between Russia and the EU as an intersubjective one, a social context where diverging interpretations of the world struggle for hegemony. Its theoretical framework marries poststructuralist thought with insights from critical approaches to Hegelian recognition dialectics. Based on an extensive and systematic empirical discourse analysis of Russian and EU foreign policy texts, this study draws a detailed picture of the intensifying discursive dynamics accompanying the deteriorating relationship between Brussels and Moscow. It shows how neither the EU’s nor Russia’s foreign policy articulation has changed substantially. The interaction pattern continues to be an asymmetrical one with Russia’s articulations much more conditioned by the EU’s discourse than vice versa. The book thus argues that the EU is more independent in sovereignly articulating an interpretation of the world, whereas Russia continues to face constraints in the formulation of an autonomous political project. With its novel and innovative conceptual framework, this book furthers the theoretical scholarship on poststructuralism in international relations. It addresses all scholars interested in poststructuralist enquiries and will be of great value to students and scholars of Russian foreign policy and the EU.

By: Mario Baumann
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032864822
ISBN 10: 1032864826
Series: New International Relations
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 25 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Introduction (approx. 3-4k words, including footnotes) 2. Chapter: Situating the book 3. Chapter: A conceptual framework for discursive interaction 4. Chapter: Capturing discursive interaction 5. Chapter: Contested events in EU-Russia relations 6. Chapter: Analytical discussion 7. Chapter: Russia narrating its war on Ukraine 8. Chapter: Conclusions

Mario Baumann is Research Fellow and Project Manager at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). His work focuses on EU-Russia relations, Russian foreign policy, Russian civil society and European security.

Reviews for How the EU and Russia Narrate the World: Struggling for Recognition

“This book provides an exceptionally profound and up-to-date study of how Europe continues to be essential to Russia’s identity formation. Theoretically imaginative and covering an extended set of discursive material over the last two decades, it is essential reading to understand Russia’s policy, its interaction with the EU and the war it is waging on Ukraine.” - Prof. Tom Casier, University of Groningen