Dr Andriy TYUSHKA, Senior Research Fellow in the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin, has just published, as part of the Horizon 2020 ENGAGE project endeavour, a co-authored working paper on the EU and member states’ engagement with global strategic partners.
This working paper examines multiple (constitutive and performative) dimensions of the EU’s strategic partnerships with Brazil, the UK, the US, Russia, and Turkey. Dr TYUSHKA’s contribution (titled ‘Russia: A Partnership That Never Was’) zooms in onto the EU’s perplexing relationship with an incrementally revisionist and belligerent Russia.
The section engages into a theory-informed analysis of the conception and (ill-)functioning of the EU’s strategic partnership with Russia, including in the three critical policy areas (trade, energy and security), since the late 1990s. It traces the reasons and consequences of the changing format of Russia’s strategic interaction with the EU and its member states from initial cooperation over the periods of ‘coopetition’ (cooperation co-existing with competition), the 2014-2021 confrontation and the ongoing conflict with elements of mutual containment, estrangement and isolation following Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine since 24 February 2022.
The publication can be consulted here.
The ENGAGE project unites 13 academic institutions and think-tanks from across Europe, and focuses on analysis of the strategic challenges faced by the EU and its tools for becoming a more assertive global actor.