Increasingly geopolitical: EU’s eastern neighbourhood in the age of multiple crises

Abstract

The recent decade has marked the increasing emergence of disorder in the neighbourhood of the European Union (EU). South of its borders, the Arab spring or the migrant crises have underlined the vulnerabilities of the EU to a whole host of exogenous threats. The Ukraine crisis has made both the EU and Russia reconsider the geopolitics of their shared neighbourhood. This chapter contends that the Ukraine crisis has moved relations between the EU and Russia from geopolitical competition to geopolitical conflict, a process which has been primarily played out in the eastern neighbourhood. Moreover, the chapter shows that the move from geopolitical competition to geopolitical conflict has been primarily caused by a breakdown in the post-Cold War pattern of mutual recognition of the status-seeking efforts of Russia and the EU. The chapter also contends that the increase in geopolitics has prompted the EU to build its resilience towards external development in the eastern neighbourhood.