Euroopa Liidu identiteedi kujunemine ja roll Valgevene-suunalise välispoliitika diskursuses

Lühikokkuvõte

The paper deals with identity articulations in foreign policy, using European Union’s (EU’s) human rights policy in Belarus as an example. Based on poststructuralist discourse analysis of formal documents, the study analyzes how does the identity of the EU define this discourse, how does this discourse reproduce the EU’s identity, and what can we say about the EU as a foreign policy actor in international relations. In the paper Belarus as a significant Other for the EU is also analyzed. The latter is a good example because of its poor human rights records and ‘dictatorship’ that is in contrast to the democratic society of the EU. The latter sees Belarus as Europe’s ‘black sheep’. This figure is also a metaphor for Belarus as the Other. Seeing Belarus as the Other makes it possible to (re)produce the EU’s own identity by identifying what the Self is not. Through human rights policy discourse, the EU confirms its self-image as the fighter for human rights and also legitimizes its actions in the eyes of the West and itself.