Russia and the European Union: the sources and limits of "special relationships"

More than 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and two decades after the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, raised hopes that Russia would liberalize and join a common European home, Moscow again resorts to authoritarian means amid the continuing absence of a mutual agenda for Russ...

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Format: Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: [Carlisle Barracks, PA] Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College 2007
Schriftenreihe:The U.S. and Russia : regional security issues and interests
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Zusammenfassung:More than 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and two decades after the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, raised hopes that Russia would liberalize and join a common European home, Moscow again resorts to authoritarian means amid the continuing absence of a mutual agenda for Russia's integration into Western institutions. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia and the West have averted renewed confrontation but managed only to craft a series of half-formed, suboptimal partnerships -- with the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Group of 7 -- in which Russia is neither anchored by democratic rules nor fully excluded by Western institutions. These "special relationships," which have been often turbulent , are now seriously strained by Russia's stronger geopolitical position, boosted by sustained high economic growth and market power in energy, and newly-emboldened rulers, who seek to renegotiate terms. This monograph, which focuses on Russia and the EU, explains why such special relationships tend to produce shallow collaboration, symbolic summitry, and costly standoffs. It underscores the bargaining problems which block closer cooperation in areas of mutual interest, from managing energy interdependence, instability in the Balkans, and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, to negotiating a new partnership and cooperation agreement. The ongoing disputes are over terms, not just enforcement, and rooted in asymmetries in power, uncertainty about the distributional costs and benefits of engagement, and mistrust generated by continued unwillingness or inability to lock-in the liberal domestic structures necessary for credible commitments or converge to European norms.
Beschreibung:1 Online-Ressource
ISBN:1584872780