- Regionalism, Post-Soviet Studies, Soviet, post-Soviet, Russian politics, Post-Soviet Regimes, Europeanisation, European Union external relations, and 7 moreEU institutions, EU foreign policy, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, securitization, Energy Policy, Energy Security, Central Asia, Russia, Caucasus, Caspian Sea Region, Post-Soviet Politics, Caucasus and Central Asia, De Facto States, Colour Revolutions, and Elections in Authoritarian statesedit
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This chapter teases out the evolution of Ukraine’s integration behaviour towards the EU as well as the shifts in EU’s policy towards Ukraine. Firstly, we examine Ukraine’s motives behind making EU membership a formal foreign policy... more
This chapter teases out the evolution of Ukraine’s integration behaviour towards the EU as well as the shifts in EU’s policy towards Ukraine. Firstly, we examine Ukraine’s motives behind making EU membership a formal foreign policy objective. We then draw attention to the gap between Ukraine’s European declarations and domestic deeds by reference to the key features of the domestic political regime in Ukraine. Finally, we analyse Ukraine’s demand for integration and the EU’s limited receptivity to those demands. We explore the circumstances which compelled the EU to shift relations from cooperation to integration, and its ultimate offer in the shape of the Association Agreement, the content of which is analysed in the final section.
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This chapter examines Russia’s efforts to stymie the conclusion of the economic part of the Association Agreement, the so-called DCFTA, which provides for Ukraine’s deep economic integration with the EU. These efforts drew the EU into the... more
This chapter examines Russia’s efforts to stymie the conclusion of the economic part of the Association Agreement, the so-called DCFTA, which provides for Ukraine’s deep economic integration with the EU. These efforts drew the EU into the Ukraine-Russian imbroglio as the forcefulness of Russia’s objections to the DCFTA required a response from the EU. While these objections offer a penetrating insight into Russia’s broader security and geopolitical concerns, the EU’s response also highlights the challenges it faced in addressing technical issues and rules in the context of high (geo)politics and peace-building efforts.
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Using role theory, in this article we seek to bridge existing gaps in research on the European Neighbourhood Policy by asking how local actors perceive EU engagement in regional security. Based upon extensive qualitative research... more
Using role theory, in this article we seek to bridge existing gaps in research on the European Neighbourhood Policy by asking how local actors perceive EU engagement in regional security. Based upon extensive qualitative research conducted in the South Caucasus, we scrutinize whether the EU’s conception of its role as a security actor coincides with the expectations of South Caucasian actors and their perception of the EU’s performance in conflict resolution. We show that the EU’s prioritization of security coincides with high demand in the South Caucasus for greater EU involvement. Yet our analysis reveals a major mismatch between, on the one hand, the EU’s own role conception of being a strong security provider and South Caucasus countries’ perceptions of its weak performance in conflict settlement. This is because the EU’s toolbox – focussing on capacity- and confidence-building measures – is not well attuned to both local needs and a broader regional context shaped by an increasingly confrontational Russia.
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In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime... more
In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime emerged in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (ECU).
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Introduction - region, state and identity in central and eastern Europe, Judy Batt Hungary - patterns of political conflict over territorial-administrative reform, Brigid Fowler Slovakia - an anthropological perspective on identity and... more
Introduction - region, state and identity in central and eastern Europe, Judy Batt Hungary - patterns of political conflict over territorial-administrative reform, Brigid Fowler Slovakia - an anthropological perspective on identity and regional reform, Alexandra Bitusikova catching up with "Europe"? constitutional debates on the territorial-administrative model in independent Ukraine, Kataryna Wolczuk Narva region within the Estonian republic - from autonomism to accommodation?, David J. Smith Upper Silesia - rebirth of a regional identity in Poland, Luiza Bialasiewicz Poland's eastern borderlands - political transition and the "ethnic question", Marzena Kisielowska-Lipman Transcarpathia - peripheral region at the "centre of Europe", Judy Batt reinventing Banat, Judy Batt conclusion - identities, regions and Europe, Kataryna Wolczuk.
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In this well-researched and detailed book, the authors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new - improved and functioning - regime... more
In this well-researched and detailed book, the authors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new - improved and functioning - regime emerged in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (ECU). The contributors seek to explain this puzzling and politically significant development by examining the ECU's origins, institutional architecture, key driving forces and emerging implications. Their investigation reveals that the ECU is an ambitious and fast moving project in deep economic integration, yet its legal design is complex and member states are driven by a precarious balance of diverse motives. Nevertheless, as the contributions to the volume indicate, the emergence of the ECU already carries important external implications, especially for EU's strategy in the post-Soviet space. Being the first comprehensive and systematic study of the new Eurasian economic integration regime, this book will appeal to academics and students of regional integration, international relations and international law, Russian studies, Post-Soviet politics, as well as Central Asian studies.
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The construction of modern Eurasia in general and of post-Soviet economic integration in particular has been a complex and often confusing process. Seeking to adequately capture and explain its nature and determinants requires the... more
The construction of modern Eurasia in general and of post-Soviet economic integration in particular has been a complex and often confusing process. Seeking to adequately capture and explain its nature and determinants requires the consideration of various legacies, ideas and interests. This chapter will highlight the extent to which the European Union (EU) has served as a model in the design and development of Eurasian integration. Recent developments in EU-Russia’s ‘common neighbourhood’ have brought to a head the new rivalry between the EU and the Eurasian project. Yet we argue that the understanding of region-building in Eurasia as well as the nature of the normative contestation needs to account for the striving to be ‘similar to the EU’.
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In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime... more
In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime emerged in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (ECU).
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The EU's eastern enlargement expected in 2004, will result in the shift of the Schengen border regime to the eastern borders of the new member states.This prospect raises the vexed ques-tion of the likely consequences of the changes... more
The EU's eastern enlargement expected in 2004, will result in the shift of the Schengen border regime to the eastern borders of the new member states.This prospect raises the vexed ques-tion of the likely consequences of the changes to the border regime on trans-border ...
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The study of constitutions and constitutionalism had rather fallen out of fashion in political science until quite recently, as the focus of political analysis shifted away from formal institutional frameworks to the social, economic and... more
The study of constitutions and constitutionalism had rather fallen out of fashion in political science until quite recently, as the focus of political analysis shifted away from formal institutional frameworks to the social, economic and cultural factors which were held to be more important in explaining how power was ‘really’ exercised. But in the last decade or so, important developments in political science have led to a ‘rediscovery’ of the state as an autonomous factor, and to renewed attention to institutions and the ‘rules of the game’ in shaping the patterns of politics and the outcomes of political struggles. The collapse of communism has given fresh impetus to the study of constitutions and constitutionalism as a form of politics, in the context of new democracies striving to reach agreement on a definition not only of the ‘rules of the game’ of political life, but also of the state itself: what, and above all who the state is for. As Claus Offeer has argued, the postcommunist transition, in contrast to previous ‘democratic transitions’ in southern Europe and Latin America,reaches beyond the ‘normal’ political question of ‘who gets what’, and even beyond the question of what rules are to govern the process, to the deepest questions of the political community and statehood itself:
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The dramatic events in Ukraine in February 2014 resulted in the collapse of Yanukovych’s regime and a change of government. One of the first steps of the new leadership was to assert the pro-European course. These events, however,... more
The dramatic events in Ukraine in February 2014 resulted in the collapse of Yanukovych’s regime and a change of government. One of the first steps of the new leadership was to assert the pro-European course. These events, however, triggered a backlash from Russia. This chapter focuses on its military and political dimensions. Russia’s response directly sought to fundamentally weaken Ukraine’s resolve to persist with the European choice by re-drawing Ukrainian statehood. Russia’s actions also sought to expose the limits of the EU’s readiness to support Ukraine during this period, and in particular its search for a political settlement in the face of Russia’s armed suasion. This chapter will explore the contours of these events with a view to understanding Russia’s strategy.
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In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime... more
In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime emerged in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (ECU).
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Using role theory, in this article we seek to bridge existing gaps in research on the European Neighbourhood Policy by asking how local actors perceive EU engagement in regional security. Based upon extensive qualitative research... more
Using role theory, in this article we seek to bridge existing gaps in research on the European Neighbourhood Policy by asking how local actors perceive EU engagement in regional security. Based upon extensive qualitative research conducted in the South Caucasus, we scrutinize whether the EU’s conception of its role as a security actor coincides with the expectations of South Caucasian actors and their perception of the EU’s performance in conflict resolution. We show that the EU’s prioritization of security coincides with high demand in the South Caucasus for greater EU involvement. Yet our analysis reveals a major mismatch between, on the one hand, the EU’s own role conception of being a strong security provider and South Caucasus countries’ perceptions of its weak performance in conflict settlement. This is because the EU’s toolbox – focussing on capacity- and confidence-building measures – is not well attuned to both local needs and a broader regional context shaped by an increas...
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Summary points zz Until recently regional integration in the post-Soviet space was largely declarative. But the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU), the latest initiative, appears more viable because of its better institutional framework, proven... more
Summary points zz Until recently regional integration in the post-Soviet space was largely declarative. But the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU), the latest initiative, appears more viable because of its better institutional framework, proven commitment to implementation and introduction of a system of rules harmonized with international norms and the WTO regime. zz This initiative, which offers a forward-looking, advanced form of economic integration, has serious implications for EU–Russian relations in general and the EU’s strategy in the post-Soviet ‘shared neighbourhood ’ in particular. zz Ukraine has turned into a normative battleground, with Russia trying to dissuade it from pursuing an Association Agreement with the EU containing the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area and to join the ECU instead. zz Faced with this challenge, the EU needs to revisit its ‘external governance’ approach to its eastern neighbourhood in terms of short- and long-term opportunities and challenges. w...
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This paper discusses the role of statehood and limited statehood in relation to societal orders in Belarus and Ukraine. We conceptualize state capacity as a crucial factor affecting open and closed access orders and define its key... more
This paper discusses the role of statehood and limited statehood in relation to societal orders in Belarus and Ukraine. We conceptualize state capacity as a crucial factor affecting open and closed access orders and define its key elements. We investigate specifically public service provision by state and non-state actors, while recognizing that security and control over territory are other important aspects of statehood which are problematic in Ukraine. Our empirical investigation of key public services covers, on the one hand, elements affecting public service provision such as public administration reform and independence, and on the other hand, the actual state of basic services. We find that healthcare, postal services and public transport are better developed in Belarus than in Ukraine. This reliable provision of public services likely contributes to the stability of the limited access order in Belarus. At the same time, politicization of the Belarusian public administration a...
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The paper analyses the peculiarities of the Russian Federation’s foreign policy towards the so-called post-soviet countries. It focuses on Russia’s policies towards Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the South Caucasus, with specific... more
The paper analyses the peculiarities of the Russian Federation’s foreign policy towards the so-called post-soviet countries. It focuses on Russia’s policies towards Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the South Caucasus, with specific attention on how a complexity of foreign policy players, diverse available tools, and geopolitical as well as ideational, economic, and cultural interests are combined into a coherent strategy. The paper argues that despite common strategic goals – geopolitical security and Great Power identity – the interests of powerful domestic players hinder the creation of a consistent and long-term plan for how to achieve strategic goals. The domestic institutional logic of Russia as a Limited Access Order (LAO) creates significant obstacles for long-term planning and makes Russian policy in the post-soviet space tactical rather than strategic. The existing patterns of asymmetrical economic, political, and cultural interdependence of neighbouring countries with Russia...
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In an effort to find a solution to the deteriorating relationship between the EU and Russia, various commentators, policy-makers and experts have suggested that the EU should seriously consider engaging with the Eurasian Economic Union,... more
In an effort to find a solution to the deteriorating relationship between the EU and Russia, various commentators, policy-makers and experts have suggested that the EU should seriously consider engaging with the Eurasian Economic Union, as part of a new ‘grand bargain’ between Russia and the EU. If Ukraine will no longer be forced to choose between two integrating regimes, so the argument goes, Russian sensibilities can be pacified, which will in turn, hopefully, lead to peace in eastern Ukraine. However, according to Rilka Dragneva and Kataryna Wolczuk, these arguments are based on a number of problematic assumptions about integration dynamics in the eastern neighbourhood. In this Policy Brief, they recommend the EU better think twice before further engaging with the EEU.
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By 2013, Ukraine was on the verge of signing an Association Agreement with the EU. Russia had failed to draw Ukraine into its integration regime despite its concerted campaign. Nonetheless, the economic mismanagement of Yanukovych’s... more
By 2013, Ukraine was on the verge of signing an Association Agreement with the EU. Russia had failed to draw Ukraine into its integration regime despite its concerted campaign. Nonetheless, the economic mismanagement of Yanukovych’s regime — on top of 20 years of neglected reform and institutionalised rent-seeking — had left Ukraine bankrupt and hence extremely susceptible to external pressure. This chapter explains Yanukovych’s ‘twisting and turning’ as he sought to navigate between the two integration offers. His belief that he could balance the EU and Russia, and offer Ukraine to the highest bidder failed when the EU refused to engage in bargaining leaving him in the hands of Russia. In this chapter, we examine the terms of Yanukovych’s commitment to the Kremlin in return for its support and then discuss the popular backlash against his U-turn on the EU.
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This chapter examines Russia’s efforts to stymie the conclusion of the economic part of the Association Agreement, the so-called DCFTA, which provides for Ukraine’s deep economic integration with the EU. These efforts drew the EU into the... more
This chapter examines Russia’s efforts to stymie the conclusion of the economic part of the Association Agreement, the so-called DCFTA, which provides for Ukraine’s deep economic integration with the EU. These efforts drew the EU into the Ukraine-Russian imbroglio as the forcefulness of Russia’s objections to the DCFTA required a response from the EU. While these objections offer a penetrating insight into Russia’s broader security and geopolitical concerns, the EU’s response also highlights the challenges it faced in addressing technical issues and rules in the context of high (geo)politics and peace-building efforts.
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This chapter zooms in on Yanukovych’s regime, discussing its salience in evolving relations with the EU amidst its growing authoritarian tendencies. Elected in 2010, President Yanukovych moved closer towards concluding the new agreement... more
This chapter zooms in on Yanukovych’s regime, discussing its salience in evolving relations with the EU amidst its growing authoritarian tendencies. Elected in 2010, President Yanukovych moved closer towards concluding the new agreement with the EU. Yet, it was under Yanukovych’s rule that the gap between domestic developments and pro-European declarations was the widest. The EU reacted to the authoritarian tendencies of Yanukovych’s rule by applying political conditionality to the signing of the Association Agreement. However, this conditionality was so centred on the single issue of selective justice (the Tymoshenko case) that it neglected to take into account the domestic context and Russia’s ability to exploit the opportunities that this conditionality presented.
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The construction of modern Eurasia in general and of post-Soviet economic integration in particular has been a complex and often confusing process. Seeking to adequately capture and explain its nature and determinants requires the... more
The construction of modern Eurasia in general and of post-Soviet economic integration in particular has been a complex and often confusing process. Seeking to adequately capture and explain its nature and determinants requires the consideration of various legacies, ideas and interests. This chapter will highlight the extent to which the European Union (EU) has served as a model in the design and development of Eurasian integration. Recent developments in EU-Russia’s ‘common neighbourhood’ have brought to a head the new rivalry between the EU and the Eurasian project. Yet we argue that the understanding of region-building in Eurasia as well as the nature of the normative contestation needs to account for the striving to be ‘similar to the EU’.
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The Vilnius summit at the end of November is expected to represent a landmark in EU policy towards the Eastern Partnership countries, with the likely signing of Association and Free Trade Agreements with some of these countries. In this... more
The Vilnius summit at the end of November is expected to represent a landmark in EU policy towards the Eastern Partnership countries, with the likely signing of Association and Free Trade Agreements with some of these countries. In this Policy Brief Laure Delcour and Kataryna Wolczuk argue that this is just a first step. The Agreements are an advancement compared to past tools, but entail many costs for the implementing countries. In addition, Russia’s Eurasian Customs Union puts the spotlight on some fragilities of the EU’s policy initiatives and pressure on the Eastern Partnership countries, revealing how economics and geopolitics are intertwined. After Vilnius, the EU will have continue it engagement and address the huge challenges for its Eastern Partners.
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This chapter explores the evolution of Ukraine’s relations with Russia between 1991 and 2011 as a means of understanding the nature and extent of Ukraine’s commitments to Russia’s regional plans and Russia’s approach in pursuing them. We... more
This chapter explores the evolution of Ukraine’s relations with Russia between 1991 and 2011 as a means of understanding the nature and extent of Ukraine’s commitments to Russia’s regional plans and Russia’s approach in pursuing them. We demonstrate that Ukraine adopted and consistently implemented a strategy of highly limited participation in post-Soviet regional integration, perceiving it as Russia’s means of asserting its regional hegemony at the expense of Ukraine’s independence. Yet, at the same time Ukraine remained vulnerable to Russia’s pressure, having done little to reduce its economic and energy dependence on Russia. This interdependence was perpetuated by the rent-seeking strategies of oligarchic interests and the lack of comprehensive economic reform.
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The study of constitutions and constitutionalism had rather fallen out of fashion in political science until quite recently, as the focus of political analysis shifted away from formal institutional frameworks to the social, economic and... more
The study of constitutions and constitutionalism had rather fallen out of fashion in political science until quite recently, as the focus of political analysis shifted away from formal institutional frameworks to the social, economic and cultural factors which were held to be more important in explaining how power was ‘really’ exercised. But in the last decade or so, important developments in political science have led to a ‘rediscovery’ of the state as an autonomous factor, and to renewed attention to institutions and the ‘rules of the game’ in shaping the patterns of politics and the outcomes of political struggles. The collapse of communism has given fresh impetus to the study of constitutions and constitutionalism as a form of politics, in the context of new democracies striving to reach agreement on a definition not only of the ‘rules of the game’ of political life, but also of the state itself: what, and above all who the state is for. As Claus Offeer has argued, the postcommunist transition, in contrast to previous ‘democratic transitions’ in southern Europe and Latin America,reaches beyond the ‘normal’ political question of ‘who gets what’, and even beyond the question of what rules are to govern the process, to the deepest questions of the political community and statehood itself:
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The recent crisis in Ukraine cast a spotlight on those countries located between Russia and the EU, a region that had long existed beneath the radar of international politics. Indeed, even its name remains indeterminate: the term... more
The recent crisis in Ukraine cast a spotlight on those countries located between Russia and the EU, a region that had long existed beneath the radar of international politics. Indeed, even its name remains indeterminate: the term 'post-Soviet' is too encompassing (it could also designate Estonia or Tajikistan) while the notion of 'Eastern Europe' has long lost any geographical anchor. Instead, this space is often named after regional powers’ attempts to shape it: as the EU’s 'Eastern Neighbourhood' or as Russia’s 'Near Abroad'. The new region-building endeavour pursued by Russia through Eurasian integration frameworks is a crucial development in this regard. On the 29 of May 2014, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the Treaty establishing the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which extends the provisions of the existing Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) and comes into being in 2015. This integration regime has been lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a new, better version of the European Union, and castigated by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as a new form of the Soviet Union. This report shows that it is neither. The EEU is a modern and far-reaching attempt at economic integration, but one that is weakened by internal and conceptual contradictions. What was designed as a geo-economic framework is increasingly becoming a geopolitical issue. In attempting to counter the influence of the EU’s alternative integration regime (the Eastern Partnership), Russia has shifted its diplomacy from persuasion to coercion, and Moscow is increasingly resorting to using the EEU as a foreign policy tool. The countries of the entredeux – literally, something placed between two things – are being forced to face to a geopolitical choice they had been trying to avoid, or at least to defuse. Divisive domestic politics, separatism, structural dependencies and the economic and political calculations of internal actors are key factors mediating and complicating their choice. This report focuses on these issues that are too often overlooked in the debate on Russia-EU regional competition.
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This chapter examines the export of law in the EU’s external policy and the impact that the Lisbon Treaty may have on the existing formula for law export. It focuses on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which has centred on the... more
This chapter examines the export of law in the EU’s external policy and the impact that the Lisbon Treaty may have on the existing formula for law export. It focuses on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which has centred on the intensive and extensive expansion of EU rules outside its borders. In this chapter we broaden the analysis of the EU’s external policy looking at the ENP against the global context for exporting law. We argue that, outside the accession context, the role of the EU in its neighbourhood is not dissimilar from that of other global actors—states or international organisations, which have promoted rules and norms to third countries for the purpose of development. We discuss the ENP law export formula against some key features of international experience, especially the factors behind effective legal transplantation. No doubt, the EU has sought to incorporate many of the lessons of exporting legal reform in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the question remains as to whether in its policy towards the neighbours the EU has moved from a paradigm based on compliance with EU law to one where ‘demand for law’ and political economy of legal reforms are sufficiently factored in. We argue that the Lisbon Treaty will not obliterate the essential contradictions and tensions underlying the EU’s policy towards its neighbours. However, it may still help to foster demand-driven, pragmatic law export formula more closely tailored to partners’ capacities and needs, in line with international experience of legal transplants.