How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine is Changing Europe

• In Event: Ukraine and Europe

Abstract

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reverberated throughout Europe. It upended a sense of security on the European “continent of peace” and forced many to reckon with the possibility that war could return. It also forced the European Union to reconsider its energy strategy of relying on cheap Russian gas pumped through massive new pipelines and instead embracing a faster transition to domestic renewables. Finally, it reshaped Europe’s borders, as Finland and Sweden joined NATO and the European Union welcomed Moldova and Ukraine to the European family, as well as Georgia. Today’s Europe has become more of a geopolitical actor that does not wait for demandeurs to define its borders, but rather to proactively define them for itself. This paper employs a database of European think tank reports about the war in Ukraine to explore expert opinion in different countries. It seeks to discover differences in reactions among countries to these common challenges, using natural language processing to explore the prevalence of competing search terms.

Author

• Mitchell A. Orenstein, U of Pennsylvania