Browsing by Author "Van Berlo, Robin"

With a tight grip on its political and media landscape, Russian authorities have a history of strictly managing the country’s information space. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an extra element to consider when conveying a message of effective governance. In order to provide insight in the Russian authorities’ response to this novel cross-border challenge, this thesis examines the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russian foreign policy parlance. It does so by analysing strategic communication efforts and the usage of threat or enmity images therein by the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID RF). To this end, the thesis built on principles from Political Discourse Analysis, which investigates the (re)production and challenging of political power through political discourse. In order to identify the representations of COVID-19 in foreign policy rhetoric, the research made use of the analytical unit of the ‘script’. With the help of the latter, it is possible to recognise which collective understanding is at the basis of the rhetoric that is communicated, i.e. the master narrative. In total, 63 texts were examined. Via analysis of this empirical corpus, 7 scripts were found, which are the ‘Us vs. Them’-script, ‘the West as both a weak and aggressive actor’-script, the ‘politicisation of the pandemic’-script, the ‘promotion of multipolarity’-script, the ‘necessity of international cooperation’-script, the ‘legitimation of the authority of the UN and WHO’-script and ‘Covid-19 as an equaliser’-script. On the basis of these scripts, a master narrative emerged, which declared that Russia, as a geopolitical actor, is actively pursuing a stable and fair world order, but which is at the same time a blameless victim of adversity and enmity. This is in line with previous research on Russian strategic communication and threat perception. Understanding the manner in which this master narrative materialises in foreign policy parlance assists with the interpretation of the general goals the Russian state pursues via its interaction with other states and international organisations.