Contrasting Images of the European Union in Georgia

Abstract

The paper explores controversial representation of the European Union in the Georgian political public sphere through the deconstruction of public political narratives of the pro-Western and anti-Western/pro-Russian political and societal forces in Georgia. The dis-information incursion and propaganda of the Russian Federation in the societal landscape of Georgia – soft power capabilities of Moscow – have become the primary tools of the Kremlin to undermine the soft-power policy of the EU and the pro-Western/pro-EU driven agenda in Georgia. The study reflects on the rotating political discourses on the EU through narrative analysis and deconstructs those metanarratives, which legitimize or undermine the pro-Western foreign policy discourses in Georgia. The mutually exclusive metanarratives build on shared cultural values (the pro-Western) and religious commonality (the pro-Russian): the pro-Western – on the myth of Georgians as an ancient European nation and on the 200 years-long Russian colonization, embedded in symbolisms of “mental revolution” and “re-joining the European nations;” the anti-EU – on the Orthodox unity and on a belief that balanced politics between Russia and the West will restore country’s territorial integrity. This fact contributes to the fragmentation of the political public sphere in Georgia and makes it vulnerable to the external encroachments. The pro-Western narrative evolves around liberal conceptions, which try to transform the post-Soviet Georgian society through ‘mental revolution.’ The political discourse analysis – understanding and interpreting meanings – refers to public speeches of elites and policy documents for deconstruction of narrative structures provided by the pro-Western political elites, as their causal explanations provide insights into the ambiguous and contradictory representations of the West/EU in the Georgian political public sphere.