Description
Book SynopsisThis book assesses the competitive and contentious EU-Russia relationship in relation to Ukraine from 2010 to 2013, focusing on the important areas of trade, energy and security. The key issue explored is whether this relationship played any meaningful role in the deterioration of the situation in Ukraine since late 2013.
Nicholas Ross Smith begins by exploring the competitiveness of the triangular EU-Russia-Ukraine relationship before the crisis. He then examines the eruption of the Ukraine crisis in greater detail, with a particular focus on trade, energy and security. The book goes on to compare three theoretically and empirically informed medium-term scenarios for the future of the relationship. This research provides a wide-ranging snapshot of EU-Russia-Ukraine relations by comparing the foreign policies of the EU and Russia as well as examining the interplay of identity and perceptions on their foreign policy decision-making.
Touching upon both international relations and foreign policy analysis, this book will prove invaluable to scholars and practitioners working on Eastern Europe, the EU and Russia. International relations and foreign policy analysis scholars and students will also find much of interest.
Trade Review'In this theoretically-informed and exhaustively researched study, Nicholas Smith provides a nuanced analysis of the contemporary Ukrainian crisis and its roots in the history of Russian-EU competition in this region. Through an analysis of Russian and EU policy toward Ukraine in the areas of trade, energy and security, Smith shows how the current crisis was a logical step in the course of Russian-EU relations in this region. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the contemporary Ukrainian crisis.' --Graeme Gill, University of Sydney, Australia
'Nicholas Ross Smith has written an important and timely book. By recounting the inception of the Ukraine crisis in great detail and developing a set of theoretical tools to think about the issues analytically he has improved our understanding of one of the most pressing foreign and security policy issues facing contemporary Europe.' --Hiski Haukkala, University of Tampere, Finland
'Well researched and very readable: EU-Russian Relations and the Ukraine Crisis
represents a first draft of history and helps fill a gap in the study of European Security.' --Asle Toje, The Norwegian Nobel Institute, Norway
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction 1. A theoretical framework for the analysis of EU-Russian interaction in Ukraine: A neoclassical realist-inspired approach 2. The geopolitical setting in Europe before the Ukraine crisis: Crude regional bipolarity in an emerging multipolar international system 3. Assessing the external trade policies of the EU and Russia towards Ukraine: Geoeconomic competition in Ukraine? 4. A precarious transit state? Assessing the external energy policies of the EU and Russia towards Ukraine 5. Conflicting security preferences? Assessing the regime promotion strategies of the EU and Russia in Ukraine 6. The Ukraine crisis Conclusion References Index
