Accountability in the Russo-Ukrainian War: Vladimir Putin Versus NATO
This article showcases a discursive peace psychological analysis of Putin's declaration of war and North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO's) subsequent response to it. By treating psychological categories as action-bound and occasioned, rather than cognitive features residing inside the...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Peace and conflict 2023-08, Vol.29 (3), p.257-265 |
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Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | This article showcases a discursive peace psychological analysis of Putin's declaration of war and North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO's) subsequent response to it. By treating psychological categories as action-bound and occasioned, rather than cognitive features residing inside the minds of individuals, the analysis shows three rhetorical strategies used by Putin and NATO to manage their accountability in the context of initiating hostilities. First, both sides describe the events in a way that combines the factual and moral reading of them that favor them. Second, continuity is rhetorically established to justify the actions of both factions as rooted in their preconflict status rather than being seen as reacting to the war. Finally, both sides use threats and exhortations for others to act in accordance with their wishes and demands. These three strategies showcase how both sides rhetorically manage their accountability, moral rightness and, at the same time, work up the moral guilt of their opponents. Similarity between the literature on expressions and denials of prejudice are found here, in the case of discursively sanitizing military action. This, more broadly, is a part of analyzing discursive violence in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war: how language can be used to justify or challenge violence.
Public Significance Statement
This study focuses on Vladimir Putin's so-called declaration of war on the eve of Russian escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (February 24, 2022), and NATO's response the following day. The analysis looks at various argumentative strategies used by Putin and NATO to put the moral fault of the war on each other. Putin's strategies reflect those used by the far-right in justifying untenable positions, and here too they thinly mask the use of military force and violence. |
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ISSN: | 1078-1919 1532-7949 |
DOI: | 10.1037/pac0000653 |