'Not here for geopolitical interests or games' : the EU's 2019 strategy in the regional and inter-regional competition for Central Asia

This work was supported by research project ‘Contested Global Governance, Transformed Global Governors? International Organisations and “Weak” States’ (GLOBALCONTEST), funded by the French National Research Agency [grant number: ANR-16-ACHN-0034].The European Union’s (EU) 2019 New Strategy for Central Asia and joint meetings with Central Asia’s five foreign ministers established standards and expectations for mutual relations. Throughout those initiatives and proclamations, the EU stresses its un-geopolitical essence and behaviour, including the statement that affords the article’s title. The article identifies five issue areas that demonstrate that, despite declarations otherwise, the EU reasons and acts geopolitically in this contested region: (1) the promotion of Central Asian regionalism; (2) the inclusion of Central Asia in formations beneficial to the EU; (3) selectively in economic and functionalist cooperation; (4) democracy, human rights and civil society promotion; and (5) international education cooperation. The EU identifies its comparative advantage through cost–benefit analyses and seeks to enhance its attractiveness by offering its allies to Central Asia, while excluding other, present actors. That the EU is often outmanoeuvred does not diminish this subtle yet discernible geopolitical conduct.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Russia : still a riddle wrapped in a mystery?

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Confidence-building measures in Eurasian conflicts : new roles for the OSCE’s economic and environmental dimension in easing East-West tensions

Funding was provided by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Vienna.Western-Russian relations are inarguably at their worst of the post-Cold War era. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) remains a key international forum for multilateral engagement. Part of the OSCE’s uniqueness is its formation around three dimensions of security, which constitute its comprehensive security. The Economic and Environmental (EED) is the most overlooked yet, as this paper demonstrates, also possesses substantial capacity for easing some tensions. Through, first, an analysis of the place of EED in the OSCE, and thus between the West and Russia, the article establishes potentialities for cooperation. Second, it identifies lack of support, most notably among Western governments, rather than post-Soviet, and the place of EED activities in post-Soviet states. Third, the article pinpoints unexpected but very real forms of cooperation in the EED in the protracted post-Soviet conflicts of Transnistria-Moldova and Abkhazia-Georgia, which can establish trust between parties with the potential to expand confidence-building further. The article concludes by calling for further use of the EED, in a time when it remains underestimated but of unexpected – and essential – value for confidence-building.PostprintPeer reviewe

Building the West's on-ramp to China's Belt and Road : opportunities in the South Caucasus

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is already changing infrastructure and production across much of the world. The three states of the South Caucasus and their counterparts in Central Asia need diverse connectivity to preserve their economic and political independence amid China’s expanding influence. Despite some rhetoric and practical measures, the United States and the European Union (EU) continue to underestimate the BRI. This article identifies recent international and regional developments that converge to create a unique opportunity for the West and South Caucasus partners. They may develop integrated, long-terms infrastructure of lasting mutual benefit. The convergence of events in and around the South Caucasus offers the place for the West to build an “On-Ramp” to the BRI. The South Caucasus provide a potential gateway into Asia’s heart that is not dictated solely by the priorities of Chinese foreign or commercial policies, just as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline of a generation ago served a similar role.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Visegrad and Ukraine since Maidan 2013-2014 and the Russian invasion of 2022

Research for this article was carried out while Iuliia Drobysh was a student at the University of St Andrews, and was funded by the St Andrews Research Internship Scheme.Visegrad and Ukraine matter to each other. That relationship offers mutual lessons on wider affairs, especially after revolution, war and territorial occupation that Ukraine has endured since 2014. This article examines why and how Ukraine came to place great confidence in Visegrad and identifies five ways in which Visegrad gave Ukraine vital political, material and even existential support. Nevertheless, a separate five gaps are identified in perceptions and expectations that reveal changes in Ukrainian understandings of Visegrad’s capacity and willingness to support it. The salience of those lessons extends beyond this important if overlooked European security relationship.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Czechoslovak foreign policy, 1989-1992: The problems of translating ideas into policy.

Czechoslovak Foreign Policy, 1989-1992: The Problems of Translating Ideas into Policy The history of Czechoslovakia is the contest of individual will against the larger, deterministic forces of the international system. From before the creation of the country in 1918 to its disintegration at the end of 1992, Czechoslovakia's survival was predicated on the stability of the international system. Partly because of the country's geographical location, Czechoslovak thinking has been characterised by a tendency towards what can be broadly called 'humanism', and was evident particularly in the writings and politics of Tomas Masaryk and Vaclav Havel. This thesis examines the 30-month period of Czechoslovak foreign policy from the loss of Communist control in December 1989 to the June 1992 election, the results of which foretold the country's disintegration and after which the two key figures in foreign policy left public office. The thesis examines the problems of translating a series of ideas which it terms 'civic' into political practice. These ideas are drawn from the writings of Czechoslovak dissidents in the 1970s and 1980s and which, when they entered public office, they maintained had become even more appropriate. The thesis begins by placing the tension between ideas and systemic pressures in Czechoslovak foreign policy in its pre-1989 historical context. Then, after establishing the civic ideas which formed the intellectual basis for the post-Communist foreign policy, it considers the obstacles in their implementation in five aspects of Czechoslovak foreign policy. These are: the nature and structure of foreign policy decision-making; views on the unification of Germany and the moral reconstruction of bilateral relations; transformation of ties with the Soviet Union and socialist bloc institutions; the geopolitical, cultural and economic bases for regional cooperation; and proposals for creating a second 'New Europe'

EU–Central Asian interactions : perceptions, interests and practices

Funding: This work was supported by the project ‘Contested Global Governance, Transformed Global Governors? International Organisations and “Weak” States’ of the French National Research Agency [grant number ANR-16-ACHN-0034]; and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) [grant number 12B9422N].By shifting the study of European Union (EU)–Central Asian relations from its fixed category of black-boxing both the EU and Central Asia, this article advances the case for the approach of examining multi-level and multi-actor interactions that identify the dynamic processes of reciprocal action and meaning-making that characterize the mutual cooperation. It distinguishes perceptions, interests and practices, pointing to the rationales and modes of behaviour of multiple EU and Central Asian actors. The article also advances five reasons why EU studies should take more interest in Central Asia, given that the EU’s larger external relations and security agenda extends to this region. Similarly, it shows that Central Asian studies can benefit from the analysis of the region’s interactions with external actors, including the EU, given that external actors contribute to reshaping national policy agendas and influence everyday life.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe