The new Eurasia: post-Soviet space between Russia, Europe and China (original) (raw)
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This chapter looks at the experience of both formal and informal regionalization in Eurasia, focussing on the post-Soviet states and the Eurasian Economic Union in particular. Regional integration in this part of the world does not follow in the footsteps of the West. By taking a defensive stance toward neoliberal globalization practices and ideologies, new regionalism in Eurasia blazes its own path of development. Resuscitation of mutually beneficial ties of the late Soviet era and the state-guided developmentalism of a market variety are two defining features of this phenomenon. Regional integration of states is a tool to advance their political and economic fortunes. Specifically, interstate regionalism, i.e., the close cooperation and integration of several states that belong to the same political-geographic community, advances the trade and well-being of the participant nations, promotes international and national security and facilitates the so-called four freedoms of movement across the national borders: the movement of goods and services, finances, labour and business entrepreneurs. Interstate regionalism may also be seen as the newest manifestation of traditional politics of alliances. It has a discernible geopolitical underpinning and clearly serves to enhance the international clout of a regionally leading state.
Eurasian regionalism: ideas and practices
The fate of Eurasian regionalism depends on major actors’ ability to disentangle political economy from geopolitics. The whole project was originally devised as a developmental tool. It had acquired some features of alliance when the sieged fortress mentality took root in the Kremlin. Regionalism in Eurasia is called upon to provide a cushion against the potentially devastating effects of the current crisis of global capitalism. The main concern of the participating actors is the prevention of backsliding into the world’s periphery and maintaining political and economic independence, not to confront or provoke the West in any way.
MPRA Paper, 2017
The goal of the paper is to systematically review the variety of arguments describing how the Soviet past influences the development of the Eurasian regionalism. While many references to the 'post-Soviet' regionalism imply that history should matter substantially for its evolution, to our knowledge, the arguments about particular effects of the historical legacies are scattered throughout the literature and rarely compared with each other. We argue that the historical legacies can matter for the Eurasian regionalism in two instances: by affecting the environment for the development of regional organizations and through the path-dependent evolution of organizations themselves. The paper concludes that the development of the Eurasian regionalism should indeed differ from that observed in many other parts of the world because of the Soviet legacies.
Regional integration among the post-Soviet states: Eurasian and West-oriented regionalisms
2015
Researchers studying regional integration among the post-Soviet states often encounter a problem of defining a region under study. The term post-Soviet lost its appeal as more than twenty years passed after the break down of the USSR. The societies in the former Soviet states have developed very distinct interpretations of the Soviet past. While Soviet legacy is often praised in Russia, it is part of dark colonial past for many other states that emerged after the collapse of the USSR. Some research centers and societies have moved towards using the term Central Eurasian, which seems to cover almost all former Soviet states but avoids referring to Soviet legacy. The difficulties in defining the region lead to a conclusion whether it is necessary to try to come up with one term to replace the aging post-Soviet concept. The objective reason to replace or abandon the use of post-Soviet adjective arises from different regionalization processes ongoing within so-called post-Soviet area. To date, it is possible to speak of two main regionalism projects, Eurasian regionalism and West-oriented regionalism.[
Oscillating between regionalism and multilateralism: An attempt to define Eurasia
LUISS, School of Management, 2019
This paper argues that several factors make it possible for Eurasian region not to become mere spheres of regional or multilateral but a more complex and intricate interwoven structure because of the several characteristic peculiars to the region. Evolving instrumental and contingent regional and multilateral cooperation and a gradual change of the logic of sovereignty (such as the supranational character of Eurasian Economic Commission), Eurasian region does not have a fixed shape but is instead more open- ended and fluid.
Eastern Journal of European Studies, 2016
Despite the strong competition on the part of the European Union (EU) to become a main integrator in the Post-Soviet Space, the Russian Federation (RF) has not abandoned the idea of continuing to promote integration among ex Soviet Union’s republics and as a result, on the basis of the Eurasian Economy Community (EAEC), the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which is meant to become a link between Europe and Asia, has been created. This contribution aims to analyse the integration in the Post-Soviet Space and the role and perspectives of a new agent in the region, the EEU. With regard to methodology of research, such theoretical methods as analysis of literature and authors’ opinions, analyses of official legal documents and statistics data and comparative analysis of institutions were applied.
Isolationism versus Geopolitics: The Dual Role of the EurasianEconomic Union in Global Governance
International Organisations Research Journal, 2016
This paper conceptualises the recent and ongoing efforts to create and develop the Eurasian Union, initiated by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2011. Engaging with two major theoretical perspectives on this regional project, we aim to establish to what extent it is economic regionalism (interpreted also as an isolationist strategy), vis-à-vis Russia-led geopolitical motives, that drives the construction and potential expansion of the Eurasian Union. The political-economy debate of Eurasia goes beyond a common tariff area and a common market within the territory of the former USSR. Increasingly, it involves the establishment of a common monetary area. It appears that a new Silk Road is being laid with foundations for a new Eurasia-one of the global economic and political players of this century. In our analysis, the economic reasons pursued by Russia in the Eurasian initiative are in fact inseparable from the economic problems of geopolitical significance. We argue that overarching objective of Russian policy is to establish a regional economic fusion, with significant economic sovereignty and strong political influence; that is, the new centre of power in the global economy of the 21st century. Correspondingly, our analysis also suggests that while Russian integration policy in Eurasia has not been formulated in an anti-American way, if successful, the likely consequence will be that a significant segment of the global market will be withdrawn from under the economic dominance and political influence of Western-led economic blocks.
Regionalization from Above Russia's Asian "vector" and the state-led regionalism in Eurasia
Russia's foreign policy under Putin and now Medvedev's leadership is taking a decisively Asian turn. However, Eurasia is the theatre where the resurgent Russia encounters an increasingly powerful China. Sometimes their interests are parallel, and sometimes they are at odds. Cooperation for the sake of joint co-management of the region may be an area where the Chinese and Russian interests coincide. The Chinese quest for energy resources and the opposing visions of what energy security in Eurasia means can define an area of potential tensions. Regionalization is called upon to mitigate these tensions. Eurasian regionalism is a politically steered process of integration of several postcommunist states with widely varying degrees of global presence and exposure. Part of its impetus has been provided by the European experience of regional integration, which is envied by countries as different as Russia and Kazakhstan. Several attempts to institutionalize regional groupings on th...
The hubless spokes: Competitive regionalisms in Eurasia
Emerging regional entities in Eurasia – from the CIS to the SCO to the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan – have met with varying degrees of success. While all of them were motivated by an idea to create a regional community that would either consciously emulate the European Union or provide an alternative model of regionalism, true regional integration proved difficult to achieve. Regionalism may provide a shell for strategic interaction among states, and regional institutions are sometimes formed as a means of balancing power of a locally dominant state or resolving contradictions between two of such regionally dominant states. Regionalisms in Eurasia reflect power distribution in the region and the policies of the regionally dominant states, Russia and China. These regionalisms do compete, in spite of all the rhetoric about the mutual complementarity of interests. Russia’s advances in the region are based on willingness and capacity to provide political, financial, and military assistance to local elites, as well as by Moscow's indifference toward the type of governing regimes there. China brings in an enormous economic and financial potential and an equal readiness to support authoritarian rulers. It seems that the concrete structure of an emerging regional order is being negotiated and renegotiated anew. Multiplication of regional "spokes" and the lack of an undisputed regional "hub" may bode well for regional institutionalization, seen as a power sharing mechanism. Alternatively, competing regionalisms in Eurasia may stall further integration and precipitate backsliding to bilateralism and preferential trade and security agreements.
Eurasian Economic Union Foundation : Issues of Global Regionalization
Eurasia Border Review, 2014
This paper is devoted to the theoretical conceptualization of political-economic processes within the Eurasian Economic Union. The author elaborates on this project within the framework of "global regionalization" and regards it as a fledging "global region." In this paper, the European Union is analyzed as a model of the existing global region. The Eurasian region also has its own specific traits and experience of post-Soviet integration. The article argues that for successful Eurasian integration in a global world, the Soviet and post-Soviet past, as well as states outside post-Soviet space, and non-state actors-institutions of civil society and the business-community-should be taken into account.