identity discourses, studied through national mass media. It compares outcomes of change and continuity during such "big bang" events in identity discourses and establishes scope conditions that allow or inhibit change. The major finding of the study is that the selected events can indeed instigate sudden shifts in European identity discourses but only when the elite power structure also changes in such hybrid regimes, as Ukraine and Georgia. These changes include shifts in elite groups and in the relative power they hold in the overall power structure. Salome Minesashvili is Lecturer in International Relations, Political Science and Post-Soviet Politics at the Freie Universität Berlin and ESCP Europe, Germany. She is also Research Analyst at the Tbilisi-based think tank, Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP). She has published articles and book chapters on the topics of foreign policy analysis, identity politics, soft power politics, EU-Eastern Neighbourhood relations and transformation processes in the former Soviet Union. |