War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine

This book explores the detrimental effects on global peace of populism’s tendency to present complex social issues in simplistic ＂good versus evil＂ terms. Analyzing the civilizational discourse of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with respect to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine-with his division of the world into ＂civilized us＂ versus ＂barbarian them＂-the book argues that such a one-dimensional representation of complex social reality leaves no space for understanding the conflict and has little, if any, potential to bring about peace.

To deconstruct the ＂civilization versus barbarism＂ discourse propagated by Zelensky, the book incorporates into its analysis alternative articulations of the crisis by oppositional voices. The author looks at the writing of several popular Ukrainian journalists and bloggers who have been excluded from the field of political representation within Ukraine, where all oppositional media are currently banned. Drawing on the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the author argues that the incorporation of alternative perspectives, and silenced voices, is vitally important for understanding the complexity of all international conflicts, including the current one between Russia and Ukraine.

This timely and important study will be relevant for all students and scholars of media and communication studies, populist rhetoric, political communication, journalism, area studies, international relations, linguistics, discourse analysis, propaganda, and peace studies.

Olga Baysha is Associate Professor in Media and Communication at the National Research University ’Higher School of Economics’, Moscow, Russia. She earned her MS in Journalism from Colorado State University and PhD in Communication from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Previously, she worked as a news reporter and editor in Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukraine. She is the author of The Mythologies of Capitalism and the End of the Soviet Project (2014), Miscommunicating Social Change: Lessons from Russia and Ukraine (2018), and Democracy, Populism, and Neoliberalism in Ukraine: On the Fringes of the Virtual and the Real (2022).