Bibliografía: p. 22-27

On 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he qualified as a “special military operation” against Ukraine. Following months of military tensions on the Russo-Ukrainian borders, Moscow opted for a wide scale invasion with the aim of forcing Kyiv and its western backers into a set of “security guarantees” (Osborn, 2022). Twenty months into this conflict, multiple geopolitical theories about the nature of the western-led unipolar world order and established norms are at play. Moscow’s war against Kyiv is yet another attempt to challenge the post-cold war international order following its previous military and diplomatic policies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and across the African continent. For the Russian Federation and its partners, the current global order is allegedly characterised by an “unjust” and “unbalanced” nature (Gan, 2022). In that sense, this war and its subsequent battles of influence in Africa will shape other regions, especially the European Union (EU)’s immediate neighbourhoods, including the Southern Mediterranean region. It is therefore critical to evaluate the impact of this ongoing conflict on the strategic influence of different regional and international actors including the EU. Thus, the question of geopolitical competition and tools of influence including the utilisation of narrative becomes a timely policy discussion, especially for the EU and its member states.