Frames of Eastern Europe and security threats in Lithuania

Abstract

For a long time, the sociology of war has focused on conventional warfare. However, given the transformed character of contemporary warfare and the emergence of hybrid forms of war, it is essential to broaden the conceptual scope of the field. Therefore, sociology of war should pay more attention to the meta-frames of (dis)information warfare. This article focuses on different frames of Eastern Europe as tools of contemporary information warfare. We critically discuss their formation as well as their actual and potential implications for security in Europe, and in Lithuania in particular. We argue that the Russian framing of Eastern Europe – based on narratives such as the ‘Russian World’, ‘Pan-Slavism’ and ‘Near Abroad’ – has served to justify its colonial wars. Meanwhile, the Western frame of Eastern Europe perpetuates the Cold War division, thus contributing to legitimizing Russia’s geopolitical ambitions. The final section examines how Lithuania’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine rebukes the colonial trap of Eastern Europe framing through solidarity with war refugees, national security policies and civil defence response.