'Ukraine doesn't exist': Historically Changing Borders as a Justification for Military Aggression

• In Event: Reshaping Memory: Instrumentalization of History and Protest Discourse Narratives

Abstract

The borders of countries and states change historically over long periods of time. Some states, such as Germany or the United Kingdom, were created by the voluntary or forced union of formerly independent principalities and kingdoms, while others were formed by the dissolution of larger entities, such as the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1992. Changing borders and varying degrees of state autonomy and sovereignty are also characteristic of Ukraine's history. However, as in hardly any other case, the historical dynamics of border demarcation is used as an argument to assert the non-existence of the state and to justify military aggression, as in the invasion of 2014 and the full-scale invasion of 2022 in Ukraine. Using the example of popular pseudo-historical maps and arguments, the article analyzes how geopolitical history is used to justify violence.

Author

• Holger Kuße, Dresden U of Technology (Germany)