Turn of the Times? Upheavals, Emotionalizations and (Re-)Polarizations of Geopolitical Discourses and Risk Imaginations in Germany in the Face of the Russian War against Ukraine

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Paul Reuber
• Subject Area: Human Geography
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 526017286

The recent Russian war campaign against Ukraine is forcing a shake-up in global geopolitical imaginations the likes of which the world has not seen since September 11, 2001. The proposed research project analyzes how the war is shifting geopolitical risk discourses and changing political debates from a discourse-theoretical and empirical perspective. Using the example of (re-)polarizing political discourses in Germany (main focus: Bundestag), three interrelated foci are examined. First, the project considers the discursive (re-)polarizations currently taking place as an opportunity to learn fundamental lessons about the role of the 'archives of geopolitics' in a dramatic shift of geopolitical Leitbilder during a current crisis. Empirically, the contours of the significantly changing German geopolitical risk and alliance discourses will be elaborated. Closely related to this, the second focus will examine the collective "politics of emotion" (Ahmed 2014 [2004]) that polarize or sharpen geopolitical identity constructions due to the particular situation of war. In particular, it focuses on the emotional charges of geopolitical friend-foe constructions that accompany perceptions of war in German politics and selected mainstream print media (comparative level). On this basis, the project's third focus examines the ways in which key actors in the field of German foreign and security policy perceive these discursive ruptures and 'emotional geopolitics' as powerful constraints on their political subjectivities and decision-making possibilities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants