Counter-Narratives as Counter-Efforts : Understanding How the EU Responds to Russian Strategic Narratives

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how the European Union (EU) seeks to counter Russia’s malign strategic narratives aimed at weakening or undermining the Union. Building on recent debates about the dilemma democracies face when developing counter-efforts to malign information influence (MII), an exploration of how the EU employs counter‑narratives against Russian strategic narratives is conducted. The study draws on Hellman and Wagnsson’s (2017) framework of democratic responses to malign narratives and on Miskimmon et al.’s (2013) view of strategic narrative communication as a dynamic, cyclical process. The study also develops two novel ideal‑type counter‑narratives available to democracies: a naturalizing type that focuses on positively narrating the Self, and a confronting type that centers on negatively narrating the Other. Through a narrative analysis of eighteen EUvsDisinfo texts published between 20172025 – utilizing the concepts frames (Entman, 1993) and the dramatistic pentad (Burke, 1969) – the thesis examines how the EU utilizes counter-narratives and how these are constructed vis-à-vis the Russian narratives they aim to counter. The findings show that the EU does construct a counter‑narrative, and that it is predominantly of the confronting type. As a result, the narrative fails to sufficiently narrate the Self and thus struggles to counter Russian misrepresentations of the EU. Moreover, the dominance of confronting elements in the counternarrative risks appearing aggressive, undemocratic or illegitimate. This may reinforce and validate, rather than counter, the Russian narrative and could further trigger an EU-Russia security dilemma.