Public PhD Defense of Louise Amoris, UNU-CRIS PhD Fellow

Abstract: The agency of the in-between countries in the EU’s and Russia’s shared neighbourhood has been largely overlooked in International Relations, where they are often portrayed as passive victims in the hands of regional powers. This research challenges that perspective, demonstrating how these countries – particularly Armenia and Georgia – can be active agents capable of shaping their own futures and that of the region. Focusing on the period from 2008 to early 2024, it explores how Armenia and Georgia use their liminal subjectivity in-between two competing regional cores as a resource for agency in the framework of their foreign policy.

Relying on a poststructuralist approach to discourse analysis, this research delves into Armenia’s and Georgia’s evolving identity and foreign policy discourse, revealing how they (re-)articulate their role identity. It highlights how their agency produces both reproductive and subversive effects on the hegemonic structures, while creating divisive and connective representations of their regional environment.

Inspired by a postcolonial research agenda, this study gives a voice to subaltern actors entangled in hierarchical structures. By examining agency through the lens of liminality and its interplay with ontological (in)security, it contributes to the growing trend in International Relations that emphasises the specific voices and agency of countries in the EU’s and Russia’s neighbourhood, departing from the dominant Eurocentric and Russo-centric views on the region.