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What’s going on in Berlin? A Zeitenwende in German Security Politics?: Disentangling the nexus of Germany’s reactions towards the Russian-Ukrainian War 2022 using securitization theory.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Informatics and Media.
2023 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to a new reality, a brutal war in Europe. Germany has engaged over decades in efforts to rebuild and strengthen relations with Russia. The new situation led the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a landmark address, to speak of a Zeitenwende (turning point of times). This marked a turnaround in security politics. This thesis draws on the securitization theory, based on the findings of the Copenhagen School, and investigates to what extent securitization in the sectors of military and energy was present in Germany following the Russian invasion. Further, it will discuss implications on Germany’s security strategy and possible obstacles. Discourse analysis is applied to analyse 68 relevant speeches of the German chancellor Olaf Scholz. The results show that securitization was clearly present in the case of military, but less so in the energy sector. Whereas extraordinary emergency measures were clearly constructed in the military sector, in the energy sector an overall securitization move was present, but the emergency measures were not as clearly connected to the existential threat. While this paper acknowledges that Germany has initiated rapid change within its security strategy in response to the recent Russian invasion, considerations must be made for future developments, in order to ensure a full and cohesive new security strategy, in response to this Zeitenwende.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 75
Keywords [en]
Zeitenwende, Russian invasion, Securitization theory, Energy dependency, Military, Security Strategy, Discourse Analysis
National Category
Peace and Conflict Studies Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-499047OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-499047DiVA, id: diva2:1745321
Educational program
Master's Programme in Russian and Eurasian Studies
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2023-03-23 Created: 2023-03-22 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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Language
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  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
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  • nn-NB
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  • Other locale
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Output format
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