European Energy Resilience in Response to the Russo-Ukrainian War

Abstract

This study examines how energy resilience was discursively constructed in European public discourse during the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and explores potential implications of these constructions for the EU’s sustainable energy transition. It incorporates insights from resilience theory into the discourse analysis of online English-language European news media, addressing a key gap in transition theory around how to assess regime destabilization. The analysis identified several distinct interpretations of energy resilience: resilience as immediate systemic adaptation with a promise of future transformation; resilience as systemic resistance that reinforces the status quo; and more technology-specific sub-narratives, focused on problematising the resilience aspects of nuclear and renewable energy systems. Among these, resilience-as-adaptation emerged as the dominant framing, largely shaped by EU-level policy actors. The findings also demonstrate that how vulnerability and risk are framed plays a critical role in legitimizing particular resilience strategies. Narrow framings tend to justify incremental or adaptive measures, whereas broader framings can support calls for more transformative change. Furthermore, empirical analysis revealed that regime actors often articulate resilience in temporal terms: emphasizing short- to medium-term adaptation while deferring structural transformation to the long term. This suggests that exercised resilience capacities might differ across time horizons and crisis intensities. Finally, the analysis reveals that discursive emphasis on certain vulnerabilities — particularly around dependency — may extend beyond fossil fuel concerns to shape perceptions of renewables and nuclear energy as well. These insights underscore the role of discursive power in legitimizing crisis responses and steering transition trajectories. By combining resilience theory with discourse analysis, the study offers an innovative methodological lens for examining the effect of crises on sustainability transitions.