One Europe or None? Monism, Involution and Relations with Russia

The crisis in relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) is part of the broader breakdown of the post-Cold War security order. This commentary focuses on structural interpretation and identifies four interlinked processes shaping the crisis: tension between the logic of the enlargement and transformation; a dynamic of involution and resistance; the problem of monism, whereby the expanding self is unable adequately to engage with the un-integrated other; and the recent emergence of ‘other Europes’ that may potentially overcome involution. The erosion of the Atlantic system provides an opportunity for delayed institutional and ideational innovation

Russia’s idea of the multipolar world order: origins and main dimensions

Contemporary international relations are rife with the ideological struggle over the potential nature of the rapidly changing world order. Two distinct paradigmatic positions have surfaced. One champions economic, cultural, and political globalization conducted under the leadership of the Western world. The other advocates a more particularistic approach that fends for a balance of interests, multiplicity of politico-cultural forms and multiple centers of international influence. The latter doctrine, often referred to as the multipolar world theory, is the subject of this paper. The discussion argues that the idea of a multipolar world order has emerged as Russia’s main ethical and ideological position advanced in the international arena. Its philosophical tenets buttress Russian society intellectually at home, providing the expedients to pursue the country’s foreign policy goals abroad. The paper examines a substantial value package with roots in both Russian and Western philosophy that sustains the multipolar world order theory

Chinese Plan of the Economic Belt of the Great Silk Road, SCO an the EAEU

The paper deals with problems of interaction and mutual development of states within international organizations and economic-political strategic projects existing in Central Euarasia

EUROPE AND RUSSIA’S NATIONAL INTERESTS

The article analyzes the prospects of institutional innovation in the european international process. European Union (EU) is going through several crises of political, economic, ideological and intellectual nature. It makes many scholars and researchers as well as policymakers and ordinary people to think about redefining the concept of the «Common European home» for not only European states, but also in a broader sense meaning the post-Soviet space. The authors present an assessment of weak and strong sides of the existing European integrational institutional architecture by using methods of systemic and probabilistic analysis as well as multi-level approach. It inevitably leads to the question about the relationship between the institutions as independent agents and nation states, and the role of intergovernmental cooperation in solving the current EU’s problems. This EU crisis creates opportunities as well as, challenges for Russia which has no possibility to simply fence off from Europe institutionally or ideologically. Europe was, is and will be a  part of the Russian national interests – either as a threat or as a factor which contributes to its development and prosperity. Therefore, the authors wonder how the updated concept of European integration can look and, respectively, which impact all these changes can have on Russian foreign policy. Using the historic institutionalism the authors make the conclusion about the existing institutional lock-ins and path-dependent behavior of the EU that does not allow to adapt to the rapidly changing environment. To solve the existing crisis EU needs upgrade the political, economic and intellectual concept of the integration process

Russia and its shared neighbourhoods: a comparative analysis of Russia-EU and Russia-China relations in the EU's Eastern neighbourhood and Central Asia

This article examines the conditions under which great powers succeed or fail to shape a cooperative security agenda in their shared neighbourhoods. It compares Russia's interactions with the EU and with China in their respective shared neighbourhoods: the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood region and Central Asia. The article applies a synthetic framework. It analyses how the interplay between three factors–ideas, capabilities and circumstantial factors such, as the personalities of leading politicians,–shape the process of interaction between great powers. It starts from a comparison of the images of the two regions in Russia's mind-set because such images provide cognitive lenses through which powers make sense of political developments in shared neighbourhoods. The article then moves to show how change in the balance of power (soft and hard) created enabling conditions for competition/collaboration. Finally, the article shows how specific circumstantial factors led to or shaped the Russian-European conflict. At the same time, similar factors prevented Russian-Chinese conflict in Central Asia. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

EU-Russia Energy Relations: Aggregation and Aggravation

Reliance on energy resources is inextricably linked to energy security. Whether dependent upon energy imports or exports, all states, regions and companies strive to reduce the risks associated with resource dependence by linking energy with their own security. Ensuring access to energy resources involves negotiating with a variety of external actors. As a result, energy is deeply connected to the external affairs of political and commercial actors alike. Within this terrain Russia and the EU emerge as very different energy actors. Indeed, the two are polar opposites in their ability to tackle the geo-economic asymmetry of importers and exporters, the structural unevenness in market versus governmental authority over energy resources and the geopolitical imbalances arising from differing perceptions of energy's role in foreign and security policy. This article examines the rise and fall of the EU–Russia Energy Dialogue. Launched in 2000 as a sector-specific forum with the capacity to engineer change in a host of other areas, the dialogue is now all but defunct, the victim of increased diplomatic fallout between the EU and Russia over political and energy issues. An overview of the key policy papers of the EU–Russia Energy Dialogue illustrates that the generic demands of energy security take on particularist orientations depending on the geo-economic and geopolitical circumstances of a given energy actor. Dialogue documents illustrate that the two sides ultimately understand energy security in very different ways. Now a viable component part of Russian national and foreign policy in its post-Cold War reconstruction, energy security is perceived by the EU in a rather more holistic way, and remains an unwieldy policy instrument