The unbearable lightness of permanent integration: why does the EU need to answer its Ukrainian question?

The process of European integration has long ceased to be a ‘know-how’ of political science. Nowadays, it is the discipline’s daily routine, the prose of life and the sublimation of Milan Kundera’s “unbearable lightness of being.” There is a cost to bear, of course, but it is worth it. For example, the Estonian understanding of integration is that the country is never again to be in another version of the Soviet Union; the small Baltic/Nordic country is now heading to its centennial in 2018 being called Eesti Vabariik or, if translated literally from Estonian into English, the ‘Estonian Free State.’ Spain is integrating to keep Catalonia and the Basque Country – after all, both Futbol Club Barcelona and Bilboko Athletic Kluba are still playing in the Spanish La Liga, aren’t they? Apart from the rather beneficial financial side of integration for the EU’s strongest economy, Germany is very much favouring the idea to ensure that it is not to forget how and why the process commenced. There is also a very original ‘Greek way’ of integration, but let’s be quiet about it for now

Discovering the Baltics? Think Tallinn! Perspectives for New Zealand in the Baltic States

This research work is driven by a desire to improve status quo in the area of New Zealand’s political, business and person-to-person relations with the post-Soviet Baltic Republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (the Baltics or the Baltic States), which by now represent an integral part of the European Union (EU). The example of Estonia will be tested as a possible ‘gateway’ for New Zealand trying to undertake its most recent endeavours towards discovering the Baltic region. The dissertation’s response variable can be outlined as ‘New Zealand multi-dimensional interactions with the post-Soviet Baltic Republics, particularly with the Republic of Estonia’. At the same time, the descriptive nature of the dependent variable is planned to be expanded with the help of the manipulated variable that will lead this research work. The latter variable will be formulated as ‘Estonia, a democratic, transparent, free-market state, can be chosen as a ‘gateway’ for New Zealand politics, business circles and the public in their endeavours to succeed in the post-Soviet Baltic region of the EU’. Such an approach will give a chance to scrutinise the studied issues comprehensively, from several angles (such as ‘theoretical’, ‘operational’ and ‘structural’), and by answering the following three research questions: is it necessary for New Zealand to promote its interests and values in the region of the Baltic States; does an idea to choose one of the three Baltic States as a ‘hub’ for promoting New Zealand interests and values in the Baltic region of the EU have a perspective; and can Estonia be considered/recommended to become such a ‘hub’? This dissertation is among the first attempts to address a deficit of scholarship studying New Zealand relations with the post-Soviet Baltic region. Its findings could be used by both New Zealand and the Baltics’ decision-makers in the field of international relations

Ukraine-New Zealand Relations: Promise of a Date?

Newly independent Ukraine has a growing international presence and an increasing ambition to be a member of affluent international associations and alliances. Since regaining its sovereignty in 1991, Ukraine has been outspoken in its desire to eventually join the European Union (EU). This aspiration is more meaningful with the country’s current active involvement in the Council of Europe (CE).1 Ukraine’s image as an international actor is also shaped by its much debated intention of entering NATO, as well as its participation in the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (‘Nuclear Terrorism Convention’).2 Above all, Ukraine’s firm will to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) engages the country with a system of economic, political, and legal co-ordinates understood and followed around the worl

A Modern Empire and Its Public Diplomacy: On Russia’s Communication With Estonia

Defining the Russian Federation as one of the four contemporary empires (Zielonka 2012), this article links the imperial paradigm (Parker 2010; Zielonka 2012, 2013, 2015; Colomer 2017), social constructs building (Wendt 1992), strategic narrative theory (Miskimmon et al. 2013), and soft power-associated public diplomacy instrumentarium (Melissen 2005; Nye 2008; Cull 2008, 2009; Cowan and Arsenault 2008) into a single conceptual framework to examine public diplomacy by the Russian Federation towards the Republic of Estonia. This analysis assumes that Russia understands Estonia as its own periphery in imperial terms. However, since Estonia already is an integral part of yet another modern empire (the European Union), our article notifies that Russia is left with a limited range of effective mechanisms of strategic communication with its Baltic neighbours, and Estonia in particular. Respectively, we test the following claim: in order to effectively project its strategic identity, system and policy narratives to Estonia, Russia prefers using a range of public diplomacy mechanisms rather than other types of communicational strategies. Empirically, we engage with eight annual reviews of the Estonian Internal Security Service (2012-2019/20)

The EU in the Eyes of Ukrainian General Public: potential for Eu public diplomacy?

This paper focuses on the public diplomacy (PD) practices of the EU—a supranational regional organisation confronted with two distinct challenges. First, the EU aims to reform its external action in order to become a global power and leader in the changing multipolar world. Second, it purports to fight the ongoing economic crisis that not only weakens the actual global capabilities of the EU, but damages its international image and reputation as a power and a leader. The paper assumes the potential of EU PD tools in meeting these challenges and tests this assumption in one case study of international public opinion on the EU in its immediate neighbourhood (Ukraine). Importantly, the study confronts an additional challenge: EU PD is described in the relevant literature to be a disjointed, under-resourced and overlooked policy area

Naïveté as a beginning: Ze Ukrainian foreign policy

Having assumed his presidential office in May 2019, Volodymyr Zelenskyy had to go through a distinct period of cowboyish naïveté before his foreign policy-associated moves started featuring some sort of logic and, to an extent, sophistication. Most definitely, from September the same year, the Trump – Ukraine scandal pushed the Ukrainian President-neophyte on the quest to realise how serious and multi-dimensional the process of foreign policy making is in its brutal actuality. Arguably, in January 2021, Zelensky’s interview to the Axios program on the HBO US television channel evidently showed that the 6th President of Ukraine had just completed the ‘foundational studies’ on being in charge of Europe’s largest country. The moment when he was replying to the host’s particular question (“I can see you’re angry with President Trump