Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

Theories in International Relations, often refered to as traditional, has an increasing difficulty in understanding conflict developments that – from their perspective – are considered irrational. The following study problematizes this issue by applying an ontological security perspective on the russian legitimatization of the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which arguable constitutes such an empirical example. This is done concretely by providing two guiding research questions. These are: What main narratives, that legitimazes Russias warfare in Ukraine, could be identified in the 2022 mobilization- and annexation speeches by Putin? As well as: How can this narrative legitimization be understood based on ontological security theory? The process of answering these questions is designed through Brymans thematic content analysis, which is being applied on the speeches concerned. Three russian narratives could, as a conclusion, be identified and considered as main themes. These are the narrative of Russia as a rightous actor, the narrative about a Russia influenced Ukraine and the narrative about a hostile West, respectively. Further, conceptual definitions of ontological security are turned into more explicit sub questions in order to stimulate a wider discussion in the analytical chapter. The conclusion thereafter shows that the mentioned narrative legitimization can be understood as an expression of russian identity security seeking, and thus a view of security as ”being” rather than ”survival”.