Ben O'Loughlin and his colleagues Natalia Chaban and Alister Miskimmon have won a new grant from Jean Monnet for a project to begin later in 2018, Youth Opinion and Opportunities for EU Public Diplomacy: Youth Narratives and Perceptions of the EU and EU-Ukraine Relations in Ukraine and the three Baltic States (E-YOUTH).

The project teams up with universities in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine to conduct a comprehensive analysis of youth opinion (students of higher educational establishments and high schools) in Ukraine and the three Baltic states. The focus is to identify the narratives through which young people views the issues of Ukraine’s relations with the EU, its European orientation and aspirations, and the background of the ongoing violent conflict with Russia. The activity will also specifically focus on the youth views on Ukraine’s relations with the three Baltic states who are EU members. The project will use a mix of surveys and focus groups to identify narratives and perceptions.

O'Loughlin, Chaban and Miskimmon are currently completing a previous Jean Monnet project exploring views of the EU in Israel, Palestine and Ukraine, reporting to the EU in September. The new project zooms into an area of Europe causing greater concern for NATO, the EU and, most importantly, people living in those countries. This line of research helps us understand how ordinary people - particularly young people - experience being in the centre of geopolitical uncertainty and the stories they tell to make sense of their country and their own situation.