Russia and the West. CEPS ESF Working Papers No. 16, 1 September 2004

Russia and the EU talk in their summit communiqués about their strategic partnership, but it seems like an awkward partnership. The relationship is not that bad, certainly not life-threatening, but there is room for improvement. This working paper from the European Security Forum considers the complex relationship between Russia and the West, including the complementary qualities and the differences in how the each views the world

Central-eastern europe in post-covid-19 international politics

The article is based on the hypothesis about the transition of the development of international processes from the stage of uncertainty to the stage of the negative certainty - the increase and synergy of the impact of negative factors in the environmental, climatic, epidemiological, socio-economic, technological, and security spheres against the background of worsening geopolitical contradictions and confirmed by the crisis caused by the COVID19 pandemic. The article examines the dynamics of socio-economic and political development and the changing role of the Central-Eastern European region. Having strengthened their positions in the European Union through adaptation to EU policies and norms, by the mid-2010s the CEE countries began to pursue an increasingly independent course. By 2020 their policy became one of the factors hindering the further deepening of the EU integration, primarily in the foreign policy sphere, and the process of federalization of the Union. The analysis of the state of public opinion conducted in the article testifies to the dualism of the perception of citizens of the CEE countries of the EU membership. High support for the EU is combined with frustration at the partial loss of national sovereignty, which is actively used by nationalist political forces in the region. During the early months of COVID-19 pandemics the countries of the region performed better than the EU as a whole, which created prerequisites for reformatting the position of the CEE countries in the EU. The enormous resources provided by the EU to Central-Eastern Europe to overcome the crisis and move towards sustainable development serve as a tool for even deeper economic and political integration of the CEE into the EU. Conditionality of support for the implementation of the EU strategies could have an impact on the CEE countries that is very similar to the period of their accession to the integration grouping and lead to the next stage of desovereignization. Meanwhile, for the European Union closer binding of the CEE countries allows not only to take another step towards federalization, but also to strengthen its actorness in world politics and the global economy

Readings in European Security, Volume 3. CEPS Paperback. November 2005

The ambition of this latest volume of Readings in European Security is to serve as a prism, through which the EU’s external relations and security can be assessed, with contributions from its American and Russian partners. It contains the complete set of working papers (Nos. 16 through 20) during the period January 2003 to June 2005. International experts tackle strategic issues such as Russia’s relationship with the West, the rise of China (with special reference to arms supplies), Iran’s nuclear programme and European ‘homeland security’ against the background of global terrorism. On these issues and others, transatlantic relations continue to be more relevant than ever, with the US and the EU intertwined in the world’s tightest network of economic and societal relations. Further, Russia’s management of its security challenges also has an impact on its relations with the EU and the US. As the enlarging EU stretches to cover an expanding area of competence, its responses to these challenges affect not only its internal security, but increasingly that of its neighbours and other powerful actors on the world stage