Eurasia in the 2020s: Between Integration and Division (original) (raw)

The chapter provides a macro-perspective on the developments in China, the European Union and Russia through the prism of the dialectics of integration and division against the background of the transformation of the world international system and the transition from hegemonism towards polycentrism. This transformation is interpreted in terms of a clash between liberal internationalism, enforced by the liberal democracies and based on the concept of the rules-based order, on one hand, and sovereign internationalism on the other. The latter is seen as a common denominator of the heterogeneous group of countries constituting the Global Majority and adhering to peaceful coexistence. The countries of the EU are increasingly prone to liberal authoritarianism (postliberalism) which is typical of large-scale securitisation and restriction of fundamental rights internally and cementing the transatlantic partnership and lacking actorness externally. Russia, in turn, took steps to defend her vital interests and dared to solve the growing contradictions with the political West by military means. Russia’s proxy conflict with the political West has accelerated her pivot to the East, opening the opportunity to transform the identity of the state and eliminate internal exponents of Westernism. While Russia is deepening its comprehensive sovereignty, China combines strengthening internal national security at different levels with proactive external initiatives aimed at the acceleration of cooperation and integration after the pandemic depression. Taking these dynamics into consideration, the paper tries to identify risks, challenges and opportunities of the interactions in Eurasia amidst the lack of strategic autonomy on the part of the EU, the intensifying offensive against China and Russia based on containment, deterrence and encirclement (CDE strategy) and increasingly complicated relations between China and the EU.