Open borders, closed minds: the discursive construction of national identity in North Cyprus

The article investigates the discursive construction of a Turkish Cypriot national identity by the newspapers in North Cyprus. It questions the representation and reconstruction processes of national identity within the press and examines the various practices employed to mobilize readers around certain national imaginings. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the article analyses news reports of the opening of border crossings in Cyprus in 2003, based on their content, the strategies used in the production of national identity and the linguistic means employed in the process. In this way, the nationalist tendencies embedded in news discourses, as well as discriminatory and exclusive practices, are sought out

The power of civilizational nationalism in Russian foreign policy making

The article draws upon theories of identity to understand Russian foreign policy towards Ukraine since 2000. The article argues that contemporary Russian foreign policy can be best understood as an articulation of ‘civilizational nationalism’ which relies on the myth of cultural superiority. The focus is on not only treating Russia as an imperial power, but on the cultural claims that this relies upon and its configuration within changing historical ideas of ‘Russianness’. Since the Orange Revolution, Russian presidents have accused Ukraine of following anti-Russian policies. This has been aided by a discourse of ‘civilizational nationalism’ where Ukraine is described as being part of a ‘Greater Russia’, rather than as a sovereign territory. This article analyses how imagined civilization and greatness of Russian culture is driving foreign policy making towards the Ukraine. Rather than an external territory, Ukraine is constructed as a ‘little brother’ which renders interventions legitimate

Statelessness and environmental-induced displacement: future scenarios of deterritorialisation, rescue and recovery examined

This article examines the prospect of environmental displacement and the creation of stateless populations in the context of low lying islands in Melanesia (Carteret Islands and Vanuatu), Micronesia (Kiribati) and Polynesia (Tuvalu), and the Maldives. It reviews the literature on environmental displacement and statelessness before evaluating pre-emptive attempts at ‘national rescue’. This article concludes with a reconsideration of the ideas of deterritorialisation and ‘national moorings’ in light of the obligations on receiving states to respect the human rights of stateless people