This paper examines the narratives that Ukraine is telling through their official Defence of Ukraine account on X, and what the implications of those narratives are. At the time of this study, a conflict is taking place in Ukraine after the invasion of Russia on Ukrainian territory. Both sides have communicated stories that aim to explain the conflict, but it is especially Ukraine that has succeeded in capturing the interest and approval of the rest of the world with its employment of well-crafted storytelling strategies through social media. Through an interpretative analysis of the content of the DefenceU account using a visual narrative analysis method, the study finds that the account presents an overarching narrative of moral judgments where Russia is portrayed as ‘evil’, and Ukraine as ‘good’ and destined to be victorious. The premise of the message as presented by the DefenceU account is found to essentially be an ideological and moral statement that is used to increase sentiments of approval in the public. Ukraine is enhancing its soft power through the persuasive power of the narrative that is constructed.

This thesis examines the influence of state identity narratives on regional cooperation frameworks in Central Asia. It applies the perspectives of ontological security theory to the self-articulation of state identities of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan to decipher socialization mechanisms in each of the cases. Consequently, it traces the routinization of the state narratives of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan toward the region and regional organizations. Ontological security theory argues that, in addition to physical security, states seek ideational security, security of identity and security of being. Using a grounded theory approach to study the formation of the state narratives of Kyrgyzstan and of Turkmenistan and utilizing official and media sources and interviews conducted during fieldwork, the thesis analyzes the process of routinization of state identity narratives, showcasing the narrators, the narratives and the processes of self-articulation. The key process that is traced is the routinization of the state narratives, i.e. the sequence of repeated actions (inter-textualized through speech acts and textual references) that transform the self-articulated stories of the states into the realm of the habitual. This process of routinization is then analyzed within the regional context, examining how these routinized narratives influence inter-state cooperation in Central Asia. As such, the thesis contributes to two main bodies of literature: the growing literature on the ideational aspects of regional cooperation in Central Asia; and existing research on the role of state identification practices in the foreign policies of Central Asian states.