The question of this paper is as follows: How does Zelenskyy try to convince the international community in his speeches to win foreign aid in resisting Russia’s war of aggression? By means of qualitative content analysis according to Kuckartz (2022), categories are to be formed for this purpose, which are referred to as Zelenskyy’s linguistic tools. In this way, certain patterns of persuasion in Zelenskyy’s language are to be identified, which serve to win over the foreign aid. As President of Ukraine, Zelenskyy serves as the central figure in requesting foreign aid.
"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride". With these words, the Ukrainian president rejected the US offer to evacuate him on 26 February, when Russian sabotage groups had already entered Kiev. By doing so, he impressed the whole world and proved himself a courageous leader in the resistance against the Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine. A short time later, Western countries are providing unprecedented amounts of military, humanitarian, and financial aid to Ukraine, which continues to this day.
As the war in Ukraine has become a global crisis, the political and academic discourse is often about what governments and international organizations can do to solve the crisis. Consequently, foreign aid to Ukraine counts as a political instrument for this purpose. Thus, donors get to play the central role in the issue of foreign aid, while the role of the recipient is marginalized. This means that the approaches, strategies, or instruments of recipients are hardly considered when it comes to obtaining aid.
Yet a high volume of aid could be as much due to the performance of the recipient as to the interest of the donor. A similar situation emerges in the state of research on foreign aid to date. In contrast to the donor perspective, the recipient perspective is neglected. It is surprising, therefore, that there have been no contributions to date on approaches, strategies, or instruments on how borrowers proceed to win foreign aid. The exception here is well-known news services such as BBC or Forbes, which analyzed Zelenskyy’s speeches in journalistic style and succinctly. The aim of this paper is therefore to contribute to filling this research gap.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Foreign Aid
3. Language in international politics
4 Method
4.1 Sampling
5 Results
5.1 Ukrainian resistance
5.2 Russia’s war of aggression
5.3 Demands
5.4 Similarities
5.5 Readiness to act
5.6 Incentives
6. Discussion
6.1 Interpretation of the results
6.2 Integration into the state of research
6.3 Criticism and limitations of the methodological approach
7 Conclusion
8 References
9 Appendix
9.1 Code System
9.2 List of Codes
9.2.1 Ukrainian resistance
9.3.1 Russia’s war of aggression
9.4.1 Demand
9.5.1 Similarities
9.6.1 Readiness to act
9.7.1 Incentive
Objectives and Topics
This paper aims to fill a research gap regarding the role of recipient states in obtaining foreign aid by analyzing how President Zelenskyy uses language to persuade the international community to provide support during the ongoing conflict with Russia. The study explores the strategic linguistic tools employed by the Ukrainian leadership to secure military, financial, and humanitarian assistance.
- The linguistic persuasion strategies used by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- The role of recipient agency in the discourse on foreign aid.
- Categorization of specific "linguistic tools" via qualitative content analysis.
- Analysis of material versus immaterial incentives provided to donors.
Excerpt from the Book
1 Introduction
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride”. (Zelenskyy 2022) With these words, the Ukrainian president rejected the US offer to evacuate him on 26 February, when Russian sabotage groups had already entered Kiev. By doing so, he impressed the whole world and proved himself a courageous leader in the resistance against the Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine. A short time later, Western countries are providing unprecedented amounts of military, humanitarian, and financial aid to Ukraine, which continues to this day. As the war in Ukraine has become a global crisis, the political and academic discourse is often about what governments and international organizations can do to solve the crisis. Consequently, foreign aid to Ukraine counts as a political instrument for this purpose (Grossi/Vakulenko 2022: 470; Antezza 2022 et al.: 2). Thus, donors get to play the central role in the issue of foreign aid, while the role of the recipient is marginalized. This means that the approaches, strategies, or instruments of recipients are hardly considered when it comes to obtaining aid.
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: This chapter introduces the research context, the motivation behind examining Zelenskyy's speeches as a means of obtaining foreign aid, and defines the core research question.
2 Foreign Aid: This section provides a literature review on foreign aid, covering the three main strands of research: impact on conflict, donor motivation, and recipient perspective.
3. Language in international politics: This chapter outlines the theoretical framework, emphasizing the importance of discourse analysis and constructivist approaches to understand language in international relations.
4 Method: This chapter explains the qualitative content analysis approach based on Kuckartz and justifies the sampling of five specific speeches used for the study.
5 Results: This chapter details the identified linguistic tools, categorizing them into Ukrainian resistance, Russia’s war of aggression, demands, similarities, readiness to act, and incentives.
6. Discussion: This chapter interprets the findings, integrates them into the existing state of research, and explicitly addresses the limitations of the methodological approach.
7 Conclusion: This chapter summarizes the identified linguistic tools and reflects on the paper's contribution to the recipient perspective in foreign aid research.
Keywords
Foreign aid, Zelenskyy, Ukraine, Russia, qualitative content analysis, discourse analysis, linguistic tools, international politics, recipient perspective, persuasion, war of aggression, humanitarian aid, military aid, reconstruction, agency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research paper?
The paper examines how President Volodymyr Zelenskyy utilizes linguistic persuasion strategies in his international speeches to request and secure various forms of foreign aid during the conflict with Russia.
What are the central thematic fields?
The research centers on the intersection of strategic communication in international relations, foreign aid dynamics, and the agency of recipient states in high-stakes conflict situations.
What is the core research question?
The study asks: How does Zelenskyy attempt to convince the international community through his speeches to win foreign aid while resisting Russia’s war of aggression?
Which scientific methodology is applied?
The author uses a qualitative content-structuring analysis based on the methodology of Kuckartz (2022), utilizing MAXQDA software to code and analyze five selected presidential speeches.
What topics are discussed in the main body of the text?
The body covers an exploratory overview of foreign aid, the role of language in global politics, the systematic formation of linguistic categories (such as resistance, demands, and incentives), and a reflection on how these tools differ from traditional donor-centric studies.
Which keywords categorize this work?
Key terms include foreign aid, Zelenskyy, linguistic tools, recipient agency, content analysis, and international communication.
How is the "recipient perspective" defined in this study?
The study argues that the recipient perspective is often neglected in literature, and defines it by analyzing how the receiving state actively manages its own image and offers specific value propositions, such as reconstruction plans and shared democratic values, to influence donors.
What are the limitations regarding the data set?
The author notes that because four of the five speeches were originally delivered in Ukrainian and the study relies on website translations, the nuances of the original language could not always be perfectly guaranteed, and the results cannot be fully generalized due to the small, exploratory sample size.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Maksym Motrouk (Autor:in), 2022, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s speeches. Qualitative content analysis of the speeches to the international community during Russia’s war of aggression, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/1288191
