“Heading for the Abyss” Interstate friendship, anxiety and state biographical narrative change in Austria

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how state biographical narratives can change and how this process might affect a state’s ontological security. Moreover, it looks at whether interstate friendship could alleviate any feelings of anxiety caused by such changes. Using the case of Austria after World War II, the analysis focuses on political elites’ articulations of Austrian state identity along a victim narrative as first coined by the Allies in the Moscow Declaration. Using a discursive psychology method, I show how Austria’s state biographical narrative changed from that of a victim of the war to admitting co-responsibility in the crimes committed. Looking at official documents and parliamentary speeches, I show how the so-called victim myth was sustained and subsequently changed by politicians by drawing from distinct interpretative repertoires. Drawing from literature on political memory, emotions in IR and interstate friendship, I apply the ontological security concept understood as security of becoming to argue that this change was ultimately a showcase of agency that facilitated Austria’s way to EU accession at a time when new standards for dealing with the past were established across Europe.