This paper explores the intersection of social images and perceptions of security in the countries of the South Caucasus to scrutinize contested patterns of belonging amid continued talk of a “new Cold War”. These case studies – embedded within the broader EU-Russia context – shed light onto particular securitization practices and their constitutive motivations. To decode these ontological security rationales and divisions – around yet eerily familiar lines – is important in order to make sense of how and why the countries of the South Caucasus conceive of their surroundings as they do and what spaces for political manoeuvres emerge.
