MEDIA-CONSTRUCTED MORALITY: COMPARING KAZAKHSTAN AND FRANCE IN REPATRIATION DEBATES

The territorial defeat of ISIS created pressure on states to repatriate citizens from areas of conflict, but the national approaches were quite heterogeneous. The study explores which frames were produced in the contemporary media in Kazakhstan and France on the issue of the repatriation of citizens affiliated with ISIS in 2019-2025 and how these frames were reflected in public discourse. Drawing on strategic culture and media framing theory, the research employs a comparative qualitative design combining framing analysis of 100 media texts (50 per country) and thematic analysis of 1,000 YouTube comments (500 per country). The results indicate that there are different media framing patterns: compassion was the most prevalent frame in Kazakhstan, while in the French media sample, the dominant frame was security. In Kazakhstan, security framing coexisted with humanitarian and rehabilitative concerns which were rooted in state responsibility and a sense of national reintegration. In France, the issues of accountability, citizenship and justice dominated more moral debate, which coexisted with security framing. The differences in public responses were reflected in the discussions: in the Kazakhstani comments, the issues were distributed across several themes, but the discussions were mostly approving of state policy, with French comments being marked by demands for sanctions and personal responsibility. The article introduces framing theory to the strategic culture literature by demonstrating that, in the face of overlapping transnational threats, there can be divergent national narratives of responsibility, legitimacy and belonging which shape public perceptions of counterterrorism and reintegration.