Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

This thesis purpose is to examine the development of the European Union’s threat perception and identetity construction in regards to Russia. It uses a qualitive text analysis to study the national security strategies formulated by the memberstates Sweden, Germany, Italy and Poland and how these countries view of Russia is formulated. Furthermore it compares the change from before the annexation of Crimea and the Ukraine crisis and how this influenced the possibly change in perception of Russia. The study finds that the Russian action in Crimea and Ukraine has changed the threat perception in Sweden, Germany and Poland but that Russia is not mentioned in the Italy papers. Hence the identity construction is similar in the countries north of the Alps but Italy does not contrast its identety to Russia. From this the study concludes that the Russian threat is not enough to construct an European identity throughout Europe but there are patterns within the Union, which might indicate how the European project might continue.