International Relations

C05(b) - The Global Politics of the Russia-Ukraine War

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Micha Fiedlschuster (York University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Christopher David LaRoche (Central European University)

Beyond Historical Unity: Narrative, Power, and the Russo-Ukrainian War Mitchell Tam, York University Canada on Russian Screens: Key Insights into Domestic Television Narratives Roman Kalytchak The WPS Agenda in Ukraine: Challenges, Opportunities, and Risks Tanya Narozhna, University of Winnipeg Veronica Kitchen, University of Waterloo

Experiences May Vary: Military Implementation of WPS across International Organizations: Yerin Chung (Queen's University), Stéfanie von Hlatky (Queen's University)
Abstract: Despite the overarching goals of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 and broader WPS Agenda, international and regional organizations (IOs) have implemented these norms on gender and conflict in distinct ways. In this article, we investigate the different WPS narratives and practices that pertain to military stakeholders, by comparing the UN, NATO and the EU. We draw from the literature on norms, international organizations and alliance politics to explain why these differences exist across those organizations and why (and how) that is having an impact on the implementation of the WPS agenda on the ground, through missions and operations. This article will first identify the variation in WPS narratives across the UN, the EU, and NATO with a specific focus on the documents developed by and for the military. We find that despite convergence in the decision to adapt the objectives of UNSCR 1325, significant and important differences exist in terms of how IOs incorporate the WPS Agenda, which contributes to the empirical record of WPS implementation in different regional settings.

Canada on Russian Screens: Key Insights into Domestic Television Narratives: Roman Kalytchak (Independent Researcher)
Abstract: Television in Russia remains the primary source of information for approximately two-thirds of the Russian population, playing a central role in shaping and disseminating state-aligned narratives about different countries, including Canada. Following the imposition of sanctions in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Canadian foreign and domestic affairs have become a frequent subject in Russian television coverage – a trend that further intensified after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drawing on media content from major Russian television channels (First Channel, NTV, Rossiya1/Rossiya24) covering the period from 2014 to 2023 and utilizing the analytical framework of antagonistic narration developed by Wagnsson and Barzanje (2021), this paper examines the recurring narratives constructed by mainstream domestic TV channels to shape Russian public opinion regarding Canada. They extend beyond the context of Russia's war against Ukraine and range from criticisms of Canadian liberal values and outsized ambitions on the global stage to competition across various domains, including energy markets, the Arctic, and even hockey, and serve to legitimize and advance the Kremlin’s domestic agenda. This study represents the first systematic attempt to analyze Russian-language TV media content concerning Canada as presented to a domestic Russian audience and can serve as a foundation for future research.

Beyond historical unity: narrative, power, and the russo-ukrainian War: Mitchell Tam (York University)
Abstract: This paper challenges the established offensive neorealist interpretation of the causes of the ongoing war in Ukraine. In particular this paper seeks to argue against Dr. Mearsheimer’s interpretation of the war, which posits that post-cold war expansion of Western institutions such as NATO and the EU into the former Eastern bloc is the driving cause of the conflict. Further, Mearsheimer suggests that only by restoring Russia’s “historic” sphere of influence can the conflict be ended. Instead, this paper holds that the war in Ukraine is a conflict that is driven in part by the desires of Russian leadership to maintain a key pillar of their historical identity that casts Russia as the modern successor of the Kyivan Rus. To prove this claim, the paper draws on an essay attributed to Putin titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, and analyzes its key claims against existing historiographical scholarship in the region. This paper then highlights how the discourses that involve the successor states of the Kyivan Rus form one of the historic pillars of Russia’s identity as an empire that have come under increasing strain following the collapse of the Soviet Union. With its imperial identity under increasing pressure, this paper suggests that going to war in Ukraine represented the most economic route to reinforcing a pillar of Russia’s imperial identity. The implications of identity highlighted in this paper are vital to both understanding how the conflict began and what challenges exist in ending the war.

The WPS agenda in Ukraine: challenges, opportunities, and risks: Tanya Narozhna (University of Winnipeg), Veronica Kitchen (University of Waterloo)
Abstract: This paper assesses the prospects for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Ukraine – the first country at war adopt a National Action Plan (NAP) in 2016. Since then, the war that started with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and active military engagement in eastern Ukraine has exploded into a full-scale war of aggression, exacerbating the hyper-masculine dynamics of militarization and securitization. These dynamics have penetrated all spheres of Ukraine’s social and political life - from state policies and national identity to everyday existence of ordinary Ukrainians - generating formidable challenges to gender equality and feminist agenda in this country. Despite the rising militarization and securitization, Ukraine has persisted in its ongoing commitment to the WPS agenda by adopting a second NAP in 2020 and revising it in 2022 to account for the security challenges that have arisen since the full-scale invasion, including massive population displacement and increase in conflict-related sexual violence. While the existing literature on the WPS agenda focuses on the post-conflict settings, this paper examines the inherent tensions between the strong trends towards militarization and securitization, on the one hand, and the WPS agenda, on the other, in war-time Ukraine. It argues that militarization and securitization overshadow the promotion of gender equality and constrict the boundaries for the WPS agenda in Ukraine. The latter ends up prioritizing the areas of national defense and security at the expense of the broader socio-economic insecurities, creating a unique constellation of challenges, opportunities, and risks.