Discourse of fear in strategic narratives: The case of Russia’s Zapad war games

Abstract

Modern military training exercises often include an information warfare component. Combat manoeuvres and weapon tests may be combined with large-scale information operations, including attempts at mass deception and cultivation of fear via strategic uses of narratives in media. The ways in which fear is constructed in strategic narratives deserve more detailed discursive analysis. In this article, the authors use the largest recent Russian war games on NATO's eastern borders, the 'Zapad 2017' military exercise, as an example to show how to interpret fear narratives. They identify and analyse three strategic narratives that were formulated by Russian official spokespeople in relation to the exercise and uncover some of their underlying meaning-making tendencies: the logic of antithesis, affirmation through negation and the rhetoric of moral victimhood. Their analysis sheds new light on the uses of fear discourses that are more sophisticated and indirect than straightforward threats or (rhetorical) demonstrations of power to inflict damage.

Weaponizing narrative: Russia contesting EUrope’s liberal identity, power and hegemony

“…The phenomenon of narrative weaponization as conceptualized here, is recent, which explains a dearth of scholarly work on it, especially as regards its effects, or implications. Even though this domain presents a generally challenging area of enquiry, some accounts are currently succeeding in showcasing such effects within specific countries or territories, including as regards turning Ukraine from Russia's 'brother' into 'other' (Khaldarova 2019), the cultivation of the discourse of fear in the Baltics (Ventsel et al 2019), instigation of social anxiety in Sweden (Wagnsson 2020), or demonization of the enmity across the US-American audience as a result of Russian narrative offensive via statesponsored media (Fisher 2020).…”

“…The wider international effects of Russian narrative weaponization are too diverse, dispersed and dormant to be assessed here in their entirety. The burgeoning literature on the matter, however, helps grasp the nature and scope of effects that Russian weaponized narrative triggers in select countries or areas, as discussed above (Braghiroli and Makarychev 2018;Horbyk 2017;Ventsel et al 2019;Wagnsson 2020;Fisher 2020). Crucially, it also takes time for some effects to materialize andimportantly -to become recognized.…”

Migración y ‘cultura del miedo’: estudio sociosemiótico

“…El miedo es, para Lotman, una construcción social. Recientemente, un grupo de investigadores de la universidad de Tartu, Estonia, enraizados en los tradición teórica de la semiótica de la cultura lotmaniana, ha realizado investigaciones al respecto (Ventsel, Madisson y Sazonov, 2019;Lotman, 2001).…”

“…Recientemente, los movimientos migratorios -en particular aquellos protagonizados por el elevado número de personas que han llegado a Europa buscando convertirse en refugiados-han dado lugar al surgimiento de un tipo de discurso social (Verón, 1988) asociado a un «nacionalismo populista'» (Fukuyama, 2018) que, en ocasiones, al generalizarse y normalizarse a nivel social, ha dado lugar al surgimiento de una «cultura del miedo». Basta con pensar en actores políticos asociados a la extrema derecha europea para identificar algunos rasgos característicos de este tipo de discurso: simplificación de la realidad social, uso de dicotomías básicas como «ellos»-«nosotros» y «bueno»-«malo», alusión al sentimiento de crisis o amenaza, entre otros (Cosenza, 2018;Ventsel, Madisson y Sazonov, 2019;Wodak, 2015).…”

“…Los discursos de este tipo han contribuido al surgimiento de una suerte de sentimiento general de alarma, apoyada en la idea de un peligro que amenaza al conjunto social (Ventsel, Madisson y Sazonov, 2019;Moïsi 2010;Glassner, 1999aGlassner, y 1999b, que con el paso del tiempo ha dado lugar al establecimiento de lo que se podría denominar una «cultura del miedo», esto es, un sistema de sentido relativamente estable y colectivo, caracterizado por emociones vinculadas con la desconfianza y con el sentimiento de amenaza. Esta «cultura del miedo» específica asociada a la migración se enmarca en lo que Linke y Smith (2009) denominan una «lógica global del miedo » , por lo que no puede ser considerada como un hecho aislado.…”