Download or read book The European Union Russia and the Post Soviet Space written by Viktoria Akchurina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an exploration of how the European Union (EU) and other regional actors construct, understand and use different forms of power in a political space that is increasingly referred to as "Greater Eurasia". The contributors examine the extent that the understanding of power shapes how states and the EU act on a range of questions from energy to the balance of power in Eurasia. They explore how the EU’s and other regional actors’, primarily Russia’s, understanding of power determines whether the post-Soviet space is a neighbourhood, a battleground or an arena for geopolitical and geostrategic confrontation. The chapters deal with a range of issues from negotiations between the EU and Azerbaijan, to how the EU and Russia are trying to shape relations in Central Asia. The volume represents an innovative way of understanding the changing dynamics of the relationship between Russia and the EU, with some original empirical data, and presents these dynamics within a broader conceptual and geographic framework. It also contributes to emerging debates about how the ideational construction of political space may provide insight into how actors behave. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Europe-Asia Studies.

Download or read book Shaping the Post Soviet Space written by Laure Delcour and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the European Union (EU) is widely perceived as a model for regional integration, the encouragement of regional co-operation also ranks high among its foreign policy priorities. Drawing on a wealth of sources and extensive fieldwork conducted in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Laure Delcour questions the pursuit of this external objective in EU policies implemented in the CIS and the existence of an EU regional vision in the post-Soviet area. She asks does the recent compartmentalization of EU policies correspond to a growing fragmentation of the former Soviet Union that cannot be considered as a region anymore? Does it rather reflect the EU's own interests in the area? Interested in exposing why the EU has not pursued a strategy of 'region-building' in the post-Soviet area, Delcour examines the disintegration dynamics affecting the area following the collapse of the USSR, the interplay between different actors and levels of action in EU foreign policy-making and the role of other region-builders. She takes a closer look at the strategic partnership with Russia, European Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership and Black Sea Synergy as a capability test for the European foreign policy to promote its foreign policy priorities and to raise a distinctive profile in the international arena.

Download or read book Shaping the Post Soviet Space written by Laure Delcour and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the European Union (EU) is widely perceived as a model for regional integration, the encouragement of regional co-operation also ranks high among its foreign policy priorities. Drawing on a wealth of sources and extensive fieldwork conducted in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Laure Delcour questions the pursuit of this external objective in EU policies implemented in the CIS and the existence of an EU regional vision in the post-Soviet area. She asks does the recent compartmentalization of EU policies correspond to a growing fragmentation of the former Soviet Union that cannot be considered as a region anymore? Does it rather reflect the EU's own interests in the area? Interested in exposing why the EU has not pursued a strategy of 'region-building' in the post-Soviet area, Delcour examines the disintegration dynamics affecting the area following the collapse of the USSR, the interplay between different actors and levels of action in EU foreign policy-making and the role of other region-builders. She takes a closer look at the strategic partnership with Russia, European Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership and Black Sea Synergy as a capability test for the European foreign policy to promote its foreign policy priorities and to raise a distinctive profile in the international arena.

Download or read book EU Induced Institutional Change in Post Soviet Space written by Ryhor Nizhnikau and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-07-24 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the role of the European Union in the process of institutional change in its Eastern neighbourhood and explains why EU policies arrive at contradictory outcomes at the sectoral level. Combining EU studies approaches with insights from the fields of new institutionalism, international development studies and transnationalisation, it explains how the EU policies contribute to rule persistence or lead to institutional change. Highlighting the importance of investigating how the policies of external intervention interact with domestic institutions, the book also provides a coherent presentation of the political and economic problems of Ukraine and Moldova and a comparative analysis in key areas at critical junctures of their development. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics and more broadly to International Relations, post-Soviet and Russian studies.

Download or read book Russia s Impact on EU Policy Transfer to the Post Soviet Space written by Esther Ademmer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia's impact on EU policy transfer to the post-Soviet space has not been as negative as often perceived. EU policies have traveled to countries and issue areas, in which the dependence on Russia is high and Russian foreign policy is increasingly assertive. This book explores Russia's impact on the transfer of EU policies in the area of Justice, Liberty, and Security and energy policy - two policy areas in which countries in the EU's Eastern neighborhood are traditionally strongly bound to Russia. Focusing especially on Armenia and Georgia, it examines whether it is the structural condition of interdependence, the various institutional ties and similarities of neighboring countries with the EU and Russia, or their concrete foreign policy actions that have the greatest impact on domestic policy change in the region. The book also investigates how important these factors are in relation to domestic ones. It identifies conditions under which different degrees of EU policy transfer occur and the circumstances under which Russia exerts either supportive or constraining effects on this process. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of EU and European politics, international relations and comparative politics.

Download or read book The CIS the EU and Russia written by K. Malfliet and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-05-10 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the difficulties facing Russia, Ukraine and Belarus with regard to their integration into both the CIS and the encroaching EU. It analyzes the links between the integration mechanisms of the CIS and EU and the various state policies towards, and the elite interests in, the territory of the former Soviet Union.

Download or read book Russia EU and the Post Soviet Democratic Failure written by Bidzina Lebanidze and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-22 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By studying the influence of the two main external actors in post-Soviet space, the EU and Russia, this study contributes to the increasing body of literature that studies the causes of democratic recession and authoritarian backlash in post-Soviet states and the role of regional actors in these processes. Empirically, the study finds the EU to be both a democracy-promoting and democracy-hindering actor in post-Soviet states. Russia’s impact, on the other hand, is far more negative than the literature on democratization and autocracy promotion typically suggests. It negatively affects both the quality of democracy of post-Soviet states and limits the EU's options for promoting democracy in its neighborhood.

Download or read book The European Union Versus Russia written by Mikhail Molchanov and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia's attempts to create a single economic space with other post-Soviet states proceed against the background of these states' engagement with other regional entities, European Union in particular. Liberal scholars argue for mutual complementarity of diverse regional integration arrangements. Other disagree, seeing the world as divided in various civilization "camps" defined by their pro-western or non-western orientations. Using a formal gravity model, the article evaluates comparative attractiveness of the European Union versus Russia as potential centers and gravity poles for regional cooperation and integration of the post-Soviet states. It concludes that for the next five to ten years, Russia will remain an absolute attractor for most members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Ukraine, in spite of its high level of attraction to the EU, is better off as a member of the Single Economic Space (SES) with Russia. In the longer run, the prospects of integration with the EU depend on the success of the SES, since none of its members stand better chances of integrating with Europe than the SES as a whole.

Download or read book The Explanatory Value of Spatiality in EU Russia Relations in the Post Soviet Space written by Servaas Taghon and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EU-Russia relations within the context of the post-Soviet space have been one of the most investigated research topics in the field of international relations. With the return of great power politics, this region has been one of the centres of attention for researchers of geopolitics. However, while geography and borders have played prominent roles in this debate, the aspect of spatiality has barely been researched. This paper seeks to explore these concepts in the post-soviet space. Rather than viewing this region as a static and defined space, we look at how it is approached to be integrated within the structures of the European Union (EU) and Russia. Moreover, this paper challenges the fixation on hard power and soft power within the EU-Russia debate. Through the application of spatial concepts and their link with power, we aim at bringing new insights to the debate about the post-soviet space. Specifically, we apply spatial concepts to the EU's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). After that, we compare these instruments and their objectives with the Russian approach and look at how they differ or resemble EU-policies and intentions. We find that rather than the product of hard power and soft power, post-soviet countries are actively integrated within the wider spatial strategies of Russia and the EU. Through our analysis we discovered spatial concepts to be more appropriate and comprehensive to understand the conflict between Russia and the EU in the post-soviet space. In fact, instead of clashing perceptions in foreign policy attitudes, the conflict exposes deeper rooted and conflicting notions of space. While Russia views the post-soviet space as an indispensable part of itself, the EU aims at extending the EU community beyond its natural borders to create a common space of values.

Download or read book Competing for Influence written by Roger E. Kanet and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central and East European Studies Series, 2 (International Studies Library, 33) Over the past decade the policies of the European Union and the Russian Federation have increasingly come into conflict, as both have attempted to pursue their interests in their respective 'neighbourhoods', neighbourhoods that overlap thoughout post-Soviet territory. Russia views efforts by the EU to establish closer political and economic ties and to support democratic political developments in the region as direct challenges to Russia's 'legitimate' interests. With the reemergence of Russia as an important international actor under Vladimir Putin, Russian policy became increasing assertive in protecting those interests, culminating in the war with Georgia. The book provides a broad examination of various aspects of this competitive relationship. Table of Contents Preface Contributors Introduction - Roger E. Kanet University of Miami, USA and Maria Raquel Freire University of Coimbra, Portugal PART I: RUSSIA, THE EUROPEAN UNION, AND THEIR COMMON NEIGHBOURHOOD Ch. 1. Russian Foreign Policy Toward Its Neighbourhood: A Complex Mosaic of Relations - Maria Raquel Freire, University of Coimbra, Portugal Ch. 2. Are the Policies of Russia and the EU in their Shared Neighbourhood Doomed to Clash? - Tom Casier, Brussels School of International Studies / University of Kent, Belgium Ch. 3. Cross-conditionality in a Common Neighbourhood: Russia and the EU Competing for Influence in Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus - Jakob Tolstrup, University of Aarhus, Denmark Ch. 4. The Russian Factor in the EU's Ambitions towards the East - Sandra Fernandes, University of Minho, Portugal Ch. 5. The Northern Dimension: A Possible Model for the EU-Russian105 Relationship? - Dina Moulioukova-Fernandez & Roger E. Kanet, University of Miami, USA PART II: RUSSIA, THE EUROPEAN UNION, AND THE GREATER CASPIAN REGION Ch. 6. Security, Sovereignty, and Democracy: The EU, the OSCE, and Central Asia - Charles E. Ziegler, University of Louisville, USA Ch. 7. EU-Russian Security Relations: Lessons from the South Caucasus - Licínia Simão, University of Coimbra, Portugal PART III: RUSSIA AND THE WEST: THE FOUNDATIONS OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY Ch. 8. The 2012 Presidential Problem: Reset once again in Russian-US Relations? - Bertil Nygren, National Defence College and Stockholm University, Sweden Ch. 9. Reflections on Russia-EU Relations after the Arab Spring - Graeme Herd, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland Ch. 10. North Stream-South Stream - Nabucco: How Gas Supplies Redefine the Balance of Power in East and South Europe - Remi Piet, University of Miami, USA Conclusion - Roger E. Kanet, University of Miami, USA & Maria Raquel Freire, University of Coimbra, Portugal About the Editors Roger E. Kanet, Ph.D. (1966) in Politics, Princeton University, is Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami. He has published extensively on international politics and Russian foreign policy, including The United States and Europe in a Changing World (RoL, 2009) and A Resurgent Russia and the West: The European Union, NATO and Beyond (RoL, 2009). Maria Raquel Freire, Ph.D., University of Kent at Canterbury, is assistant professor in the Department of International Relations at the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra. Her research focuses on foreign policy, Russia and the post-Soviet space and peace studies. She has published widely, including Key Players and Regional Dynamics in Eurasia (Palgrave, 2010)

Download or read book Russia and the Former Soviet Space written by Vasile Rotaru and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book represents a fresh contribution to the contemporary academic debate regarding the determinants of current Russian foreign policy assertiveness. More precisely, it addresses the ways in which perceived security threats have been used by Russia to legitimize its interventions in the former Soviet Space. It is argued here that the security dimension has been successfully used by the Kremlin for the domestic justification of its aggressive actions in neighbouring countries, and that the narrative of the ‘besieged fortress’ was applied to both the war in Georgia and the intervention in Ukraine. Bringing together a number of authors from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Germany and the UK, the volume presents both local, regional and Western European perspectives on the various events analysed here. It will appeal to a wide range of students and professors specialized in Russia and the former Soviet space in the fields of international relations, international law, foreign policy analysis and security studies, as well as to think tanks and policy makers.

Download or read book The EU and Russia in Their Contested Neighbourhood written by Laure Delcour and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literature on the European Union influence’s in its Eastern neighbourhood has tended to focus on EU-level policies and prioritize EU-related variables. This book seeks to overcome this EU-centric approach by connecting EU policy transfer to the domestic and regional environment in which it unfolds. It looks at the way in which the EU seeks to influence domestic change in the post-Soviet countries participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy/Eastern Partnership and domestic receptivity to EU policies and templates. It seeks to disentangle the various dynamics behind domestic change (or lack thereof) in Eastern Partnership countries, including EU policy mechanisms, domestic elites’ preferences and strategies, regional interdependences and Russia’s policies. Based upon extensive empirical investigation on EU policies in four countries; Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – and in two pivotal policy sectors - the book provides systematic and nuanced understanding of complex forces at work in the policy transfer process. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of international relations, European studies, democratization studies, and East European Politics and area studies, particularly post-Soviet/Eurasian studies.

Download or read book Eurasia Rising written by Georgeta Pourchot and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-07-30 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the score of countries comprising Russia's near abroad (the former non-Russian Soviet republics) and far abroad (the former non-Russian Warsaw Pact states) are behaving with variably increasing independence in their domestic and foreign policies, Russia continues to regard them as remaining within the same core-periphery sphere of influence formerly exerted by the Soviet Union within the same geographic space. Russia misinterprets bids by these countries to adopt liberalizing structural reforms and to join Euro-Atlantic organizations as foreign-inspired and inimical to Russia's security. Whether Russia can learn to recognize that such bids are in fact natural developments of national self-interest will determine whether healthy and mutually beneficial bilateral relations can develop between Russia and the states of her near and far abroad in the 21st century. No previous study of the dynamics of post-Soviet assertive sovereignty has as broad a geographic scope as Eurasia Rising, which considers the whole of Post-Soviet Space: DT Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine DT_ Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania DT Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia DT Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan DT Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia

Download or read book Crises in the Post Soviet Space written by Felix Jaitner and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-06-13 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The breakup of the Soviet Union led to the creation of new states and territorial conflicts of different levels of intensity. Scrutinising the post‐Soviet period, this volume offers explanations for both the frequency and the intensity of crises in the region. This book argues that the societies which emerged in the post-Soviet space share characteristic features, and that the instability and conflict-prone nature of the Soviet Union’s successor states can be explained by analysing the post-independence history of the region and linking it to the emergence of overlapping economic, political and violent crises (called 'Intersecting Crises Phenomena’). Transformation itself is shown to be a decisive process and, while acknowledging specific national and regional characteristics and differences, the authors demonstrate its shared impact. This comparison across countries and over time presents patterns of crisis and crisis management common to all the successor states. It disentangles the process, highlighting the multifaceted features of post-Soviet crises and draws upon the concept of crisis to determine the tipping points of post-Soviet development. Especially useful for scholars and students dealing with the Soviet successor states, this book should also prove interesting to those researching in the fields of communist and post‐communist Studies, Eurasian politics, international relations and peace and conflict studies.

Download or read book Post Soviet Legacies and Conflicting Values in Europe written by Lena Surzhko-Harned and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Generational conflicts occur in any society and prove to be both a puzzle and a rite of passage for every generation. Older generations often find it difficult to relate to the younger generations. Yet, as every generation comes of age, it leaves an impact on societal structures as a whole. Between baby boomers and millennials, societal norms and values transform in new and unexpected ways. While globalization has greatly contributed to the generational gaps world over, the post-communist transition, which occurred in the wake of the collapse of the USSR, left lasting and profound effects on these transitioning societies. This book investigates the generational conflict in the post-Soviet societies and argues that the generational divide runs deep. The post-Soviet generation, Generation WhY, has not dealt with the experience of old Soviet structures and they do not share the same values and norms as their parents and grandparents. Individualism, lack of trust in state institutions, independence, and entrepreneurial spirit run high among the members of the perestroika generation. Yet we still find differences between societies. While the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has its roots in a number of deeply seeded issues, this analysis shows that the generational gap is a part of the problem. This book also offers conclusive evidence to suggest that the members of the post-Soviet generation can be part of the solution.

Download or read book Russia and the Right to Self Determination in the Post Soviet Space written by Johannes Socher and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The right to self-determination is renowned for its lack of clear interpretation. Broadly speaking, one can differentiate between a 'classic' and a 'romantic' tradition. In modern international law, the balance between these two opposing traditions is sought in an attempt to contain or 'domesticate' the romantic version by limiting it to 'abnormal' situations, that is cases of 'alien subjugation, domination and exploitation'. This book situates Russia's engagement with the right to self-determination in this debate. It shows that Russia follows a distinct approach to self-determination that diverges significantly from the consensus view in international state practice and scholarship, partly due to a lasting legacy of the former Soviet doctrine of international law. Against the background of the Soviet Union's role in the evolution of the right to self-determination, the bulk of the study analyses Russia's relevant state practice in the post-Soviet space through the prisms of sovereignty, secession, and annexation. Drawing on analysis of all seven major secessionist conflicts in the former Soviet space and a detailed study of Russian sources and scholarship, it traces how Russian engagement with self-determination has changed over the past three decades. Ultimately, the book argues that Russia's approach to the right of peoples to self-determination should not only be understood in terms of power politics disguised as legal rhetoric but in terms of a continuously assumed regional hegemony and exceptionalism, based on balance-of-power considerations.

Download or read book Russia and its Changing Perceptions of the EU written by Michael Hofmann and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2006-10-04 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 69 (upper second), University of Kent, language: English, abstract: In May 2004, seven formerly Soviet satellite countries joined the European Union (EU). In 2007, the enlargement process of the EU proceeded with another two former Soviet satellites, Romania and Bulgaria becoming new members. Furthermore, the Ukrainian government, whose country shares a common border of almost 1600 km with Russia, has commited itself to enhance political and economic reform processes. Its strategic long-term goal is the accession to the EU. Although it is rather unlikely that accession talks with the Ukraine will start in the near future, the course adopted by the government is obvious. Georgia, a former Soviet republic as well, formulated back in 2003 its strategic long-term objective which is becoming a member of the EU. The Eastern Enlargement in 2004 brought the EU at the doorstep to the Russian Federation. Although having shared a common border with Russia since 1995 when Finland became a member of the EU, the situation now is qualitatively different. Russia’s former direct sphere of influence is now integrated within the framework of the EU. Due to this relatively new situation of immediate neighbourhood without any ideologic cutting line or cordon sanitaire1, it is likely that new patterns concerning the Russia-EU relationship arise. Particularly, the Russian perspective on the EU might change qualitatively, with the latter expanding to territories that were just fifteen years ago under direct control of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR). This paper argues that Russia faces a dilemma concerning its relations with the EU. On the one hand, the EU constitutes a competitor for post-Soviet space. On the other hand, Russia needs the EU as a partner, particularly in the economic field. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to examine Russia’s perception towards the EU’s enlargement policy. In the first part, base lines of Russian foreign policy since 1990 will be identified by applying theoretical approaches of international relations to these developments. The role the EU played in Russia’s foreign policy perception will be emdedded into the broader scope of Russia’s general approach to international affairs. Russia’s specific perception attributed to EU’s Eastern enlargement policy will be the focus of the third part of the paper. Identifying patterns of Russian responses to the dynamics of EU’s Eastern Enlargement and the implications of these responses for Russia-EU relations will also be discussed.