National Identity as Ukraine’s Source of Societal Resolve: What Are the Main Takeaways for Latvia?
摘要
Ukraine is a successful instance of societal resolve as it has manifested during the full-scale war with Russia, which started in 2022. While Ukraine’s societal resolve and national identity have been critical and praiseworthy phenomena, the question for this chapter is whether they have the potential to be replicated. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to offer takeaways from a particular case of Ukraine’s societal resolve relevant to national identity and to determine whether these features and to what extent have a potential to be replicated in another society, and, especially, what Latvia could and should learn and adopt from this case study. The conclusions could be applied more widely than Latvia alone, for instance, to other European states. In order to achieve this aim, the chapter discusses the concept of national identity and what it encompasses; establishes how exactly national identity has played a role in Ukraine’s societal resolve; and lists and elaborates on four main takeaways from Ukraine’s case study and their potential to be replicated. The chapter concludes that states could and should strive for implementing all of the identified takeaways—like emphasizing civic aspects of national identity, having attractive vision for the future, and citizens having an answer as to why it is worth to stand for their state—if approached in a comprehensive, purposeful, and context-specific manner. States would certainly benefit from the citizens’ resolve to preserve, invest in, stand for, and shape the future of their state during the peacetime, and, potentially, during the crisis.