The Coalition of the Willing and Pro-NATOism: Russia–Ukraine Anti-war Discourse

Abstract

NATO ideology, or NATOism, has been part of American and European political agendas for decades. This ideology remapped the unipolar ruling system represented by the United States. However, NATOism not only prompts an identity of self-belonging and appreciation in pro-NATO states for a union of military and security cooperation, but also incites alarming panic and apprehension in anti-NATO countries by triggering an unconscious survival-of-the-fittest race. The world is now experiencing both of these conditions, discursively reformulated by political elites. The current study applies a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of NATO discourse and its effect on creating unipolar coalitions. The methods of discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and cognitive linguistics were employed in the analysis of Joe Biden’s speeches in order to uncover his role in constructing pro-NATO ideology within international relations, and the ways in which the Russia-Ukraine war has decontextualized the mental structure of NATO identity. The results revealed that certain discourse strategies were inextricably linked in constructing a coalition of the willing against Russian hostility.