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In ‘crisis’ we trust? On (un)intentional knowledge distortion and the exigency of terminological clarity in academic and political discourses on Russia’s war against Ukraine

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Abstract

The study of Russia’s evolving (c)overt aggression against Ukraine has received vast scholarly attention, with multivariate accounts offered on what the conflict is actually about, what are its root causes, its legal and political nature as well as what the future may hold for its evolution and resolution. Thereby, a number of contending conceptualizations of the Russia-Ukraine conflict(s), including the hyperinflated ‘Ukraine crisis’ term, vividly showed that there is a clash of (factual and fictional) narratives in both media, politics, and academia, a good share of which (un)intentionally contribute to the distortion, rather than production, of knowledge. With a critical introspection into the academic debate on the matter, this article seeks to uncover the dominant framings of the evolving Russia-Ukraine war and modalities of both unintentional, intentional and collateral knowledge distortion, as well as to stimulate overdue discussion on the conceptual distinction between ‘crisis’, ‘conflict’ and ‘war’ paradigms in the conflict-sensitive context.

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Fig. 1

Source: author’s own analysis and presentation

Fig. 2

Source: author’s own analysis and presentation

Fig. 3

Source: author’s own elaboration

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Notes

  1. Google-enabled search of (current and archival) official websites of EU institutions returns a total of 8340 hits for ‘crisis in Ukraine’ (4180 on EP’s website, 2010 on Council & European Council website, 1730 on Commission’s website, and 420 on EEAS website). The ‘Ukrainian crisis’ frame was rhetorically embraced in at least 2379 EU institutional speech acts (Council and European Council—970; EP—740; Commission—607; EEAS—62), whereas the ‘Ukraine crisis’ frame appeared in further 1474 official statements (EP—655; Commission—407; Council and European Council—368; EEAS—44).

  2. Altogether, 4480 sources (2081 WoS and 2399 Scopus publications) fed into the current interdisciplinary state-of-the-art assessment (data on file with the author). With methodological triangulation in mind, two major databases were selected. The publication trends observed in both platforms (as seen in Figs. 1 and 2) confirm consistent patterns in naming and framing Russia’s continued war against Ukraine in scholarly publications. Whereas the focus on texts, rather than titles of the publications alone, might have given more in-depth and nuanced access to respective arguments, this article addresses the problem of scientific positionality on the studied issue matter in general—and, thus, the succinct framings of the Russia-Ukraine war in articles’ titles appear to be more suitable a dimension of the scholarly frames and discourse analysis pursued.

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  1. College of Europe in Natolin, European Neighbourhood Policy Chair, ul. Nowoursynowska 84, 02-797, Warsaw, Poland

    Andriy Tyushka

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Tyushka, A. In ‘crisis’ we trust? On (un)intentional knowledge distortion and the exigency of terminological clarity in academic and political discourses on Russia’s war against Ukraine. J Int Relat Dev 26, 643–659 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-023-00313-2

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