Reclaiming Crimea: Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy and the Liberal International Order

This article explores how Ukraine’s cultural diplomacy contributes to the global culture war over fundamental values underpinning the international order. Using a mixed method approach it analyzes the strategic narratives about Crimea employed by the Ukrainian Institute in its cultural diplomacy initiatives in years 2020–2024. The analysis identifies a strategic narrative framework composed of a sovereignty macro-narrative and three supporting micro-narratives: decolonial, humanitarian, and humanizing. Their discursive construction indicates an alignment with the ideological assumptions of the liberal international order and a strategy of persuasion centering indigenous rights, human rights, and personal freedom, while backgrounding immediate state interests in order to generate support for the fundamental claim of “Crimea is Ukraine.” In doing so the framework both draws legitimacy from and reinforces the liberal international order exemplifying how states may act within a symbolic struggle to advance their own interests.