Understanding Conflict between Russia and the EU: The Limits of Integration
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Despite these quibbles, the impressive scholarship and wide-ranging scope of this book makes it an essential reading for both scholars and students of the EU. Zielonka has a lucid, wonderfully opinionated style of prose, with meticulously footnoted sources. While it is too early to judge if the neo-medieval paradigm will stand the test of time and scholarly scrutiny in this rapidly changing and developing academic subdiscipline, it does reveal the inadequacies and weaknesses of existing conceptions, and serves as a scholarly call-to-arms for a more open-minded approach to understanding the EU. At the very least, this timely volume is certain to ignite the much-needed fiery scholarly debate on exactly what Europe is, and where it is heading.
Daunis Auers University of Latvia, Latvia
Understanding Conflict between Russia and the EU: The Limits of Integration Sergei Prozorov Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills and New York, 2006, 210pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-9689-3
Journal of International Relations and Development (2007) 10, 212–214. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jird.1800119 Relations with Europe have been one of the most studied aspects of Russia’s foreign policy under Putin within the broader debate on Russia’s identity and world role. However, in spite of the optimistic declarations about Putin’s European orientation the partnership between the European Union (EU) and Russia has continued to be problematic with regard to specific issues like trade tariffs, visa regimes or the question of democracy. One key reason for these disagreements, according to the scholarly literature, is the asymmetry between both sides. Russia is a sovereign state whose first concern is the defence of its national interests. The EU, on the other hand, is a ‘post-modern’ international actor based precisely on the partial transfer of sovereignty from member states to common institutions. It is on the debate on sovereignty and integration that Prozorov’s book aims to make a much-needed theoretical contribution. The author problematizes the implicit assumption that integration processes are inherently positive and that the Russian adherence to a traditional conception of sovereignty makes relations with the EU unnecessarily difficult. He departs from these aprioristic views by adopting an empirical approach, analyzing the actual representation of Russia and the EU in their political discourse. He is able in this way to trace the roots of the current situation to the historical interaction between both actors, which have defined their identities in relation to the ‘Other’. The introductory chapter describes the evolution of EU–Russia relations since the 1997 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). The ‘colour revolutions’ in
Book Reviews
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Georgia and Ukraine, in particular, have clearly eroded the confidence between both sides, resurrecting the Russian rhetoric about foreign interference in their internal affairs. The second chapter focuses on how exclusion from Europe has been presented as a problem in the Russian discourse: the disagree
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