Abstract
Traditional scholarship on economic interdependence assumes that economic ties primarily function as stabilising mechanisms or strategic tools for leverage. However, they neglect how identity and ontological concerns can securitise interdependence. This study addresses this critical gap by integrating Ontological Security Theory to move beyond materialist explanations and offer a novel framework for understanding how economic ties are redefined in response to crises. Using an interpretative process-tracing approach, combined with Critical Discourse Studies, the study examines how EU institutional narratives reconstructed interdependence with Russia from a cooperative mechanism into an existential security threat. Unlike conventional sanctions research focused on costs or strategic outcomes, this analysis spotlights the discursive mechanisms that enabled the EU's shift from managed interdependence (pre-2022) to economic coercion (post-2022). The findings identify a three-phase transformation: (1) Managed Interdependence, (2) Ontological Crisis and Reflexive Routinisation and (3) Weaponised Interdependence and Strategic Deterrence. The EU’s move from ‘smart sanctions’ to full-scale economic coercion was driven not solely by material interests, but by the need to reaffirm its normative identity amid ontological insecurity. This perspective offers new insights into economic statecraft, international political economy and EU security policy.