War of narratives and revisionist challenge – the impact of war in Ukraine on security narratives and the Baltic security environment.

• In Event: War and Changing Perceptions of Security

Abstract

The growing attention paid to psychological warfare and influence operations characterizes the Baltic security environment in the 21st century. The increasing impact of Russian-produced narratives on the Western society has significantly increased worldwide instability and insecurity and forced the international system to move from Kantian security governance to Hobbesian hyper-competitiveness, by which the world is becoming more securitized and dominated by cultures of fear and uncertainty. Global contenders to the valid international order have been supported by various alternative ideological movements and conspiracy theories, with the goal to destroy the credibility of the Western liberal democratic community represented by NATO and the European Union. These revisionist and populist actors often feed each other in their common strategic goal to contend general principles of the existing system. This paper examines strategic narratives disseminated by revisionist state and non-state actors regarding the war in Ukraine and the future of Baltic security environment. Comparative analysis of narrative studies demonstrates how traditions, myths, and beliefs can influence modern societies by using the newest technologies of communication. The systematic use of image-building and its massive reproduction in media may finally introduce paradigmatic shift in the society, when previously condemned narratives will get public approval and this way will be “normalized”. Increasing securitization may lead revisionist actors to irrational responses as we see in case of the Ukrainian war in 2022.

Short Bio

Dr. Holger Mölder is Estonian political scientist, Associated Professor in International Relations and Security Studies at the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). He has a PhD in Political Sciences from the University of Tartu (2010) and MA in International Security and Civil Military Relations from the US Naval Postgraduate School (1998). Previously, he worked nearly 20 years for the Estonian Ministry of Defense and the Estonian Military Academy. His main research interests cover various international security issues, political cultures, influence and information operations, and psychological warfare. His most recent publications are an article The Prospects of Strategic Imagination in Explaining International Security Challenges (Quality & Quantity, Springer. 2022); a chapter Culture of Fear: the Decline of Europe in Russian political imagination in Krouwel, A.; Önnerfors, A. (Ed.). Continent of Conspiracies: Conspiracy Theories in and about Europe (Thengdon-on-Thames, England, UK: Routledge, 2021) and edited volumes The Russian Federation in the Global Knowledge Warfare - Influence Operations in Europe and Its Neighborhood (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, edited with A.Chochia, T.Kerikmäe and V.Sazonov, 2021), Producing Cultural Change in Political Communities. The Impact of Populism and Extremism on the International Security Environment (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, edited with C.F.Voinea and V.Sazonov, 2023).

Author

• Holger Mölder, Tallinn University of Technology