The Challenges of Integration

The CIS, the EU and Russia

The CIS, the EU and Russia focuses on the challenges of integration that face countries in the post-Soviet space, in particular Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The book explores these challenges and analyses the links between various integration mechanisms (including the EU), state policies and elite interests on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

While research on the EU policy of the post-Soviet states has been intensified in recent years, the CIS dimension has remained relatively under-researched. Furthermore, the EU and the CIS dimensions are normally treated separately. The aim of this project is to combine both dimensions under the angle of the integration processes and to analyse them as mutually dependent processes.
The book consists of three parts. The first, introductory part gives an overview of CIS integration since 1991 and the substantial role that Russia plays in this process up until the present day. The second part focuses on the post-Soviet states' relations with the European Union and 'soft' cooperational structures like the New Neighbourhood Policy. The third part combines the two vectors and sets out to detect patterns of integration that include both CIS and EU vectors. The main question that arises focuses on the compatibility of these integration patterns.

Introduction; PART I: IN PURSUIT OF INTEGRATION IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE; The Post-Soviet Space: From the USSR to the Commonwealth of Independent States and Beyond; I.Kobrinskaya; Russian Approaches to Integration in the Post-Soviet Space in the 2000s; E.Vinokurov; Russia's Pursuit of its Eurasian Security Interests: Weighing the CIS and Alternative Bilateral-Multilateral Arrangements; J.Willerton & M.Beznosov;

PART II: THE EU AND THE POST-SOVIET SPACE; The Clash of Integration Processes? The Shadow Effect of the Enlarged EU on its Eastern Neighbours; T.Casier; EU Policies towards Russia: Secondary Integration by Association?; H.Moroff; EU- Russia Relations in EU Neighbourhood Policies; M.Vahl;

PART III: PATTERNS OF INTEGRATION; Parallels and Divergences of Integration in Ukraine and Belarus; L.Verpoest; Patterns of Integration and Regime Compatibility: Ukraine between the CIS and the EU; R.Dragneva & A.Dimitrova; Integration by Absorption: New Subjects for the Russian Federation; G.Kurdiukov & K.Malfliet; The EU-Russia Common Economic Space and the Policy-Taker Problem; E.Vinokurov; Conclusion: Challenges of Integration: the EU, the CIS and Russia


About the Authors:

KATLIJN MALFLIET is Research Director for Central and Eastern Europe at the Institute for International and European Policy (at K.U. Leuven), Belgium. Katlijn studied Law and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven (K.U. Leuven). She received an M.A. in East European Studies from the Universities of Ghent, Brussels and Leuven, and a PhD in Legal Science from K.U.Leuven.
LIEN VERPOEST is a research fellow at the Institute for International and European Policy (K.U. Lueven), Belgium. Lien studied Slavonic Languages and Eastern European Culture (K.U. Leuven and Saint Petersburg State University) and International Relations and Conflict Management (Lund University, Sweden and K.U. Leuven). She also obtained an MA in Eastern European Studies from the universities of Ghent, Brussels and Leuven.
EVGENY VINOKUROV is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia. He received his LLM from the University of Göttingen and PhD from Kaliningrad State University.

  • ISBN: 9780230521063
  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Author: Katlijn Malfiet, Lien Verpoest, Evgeny Vinokurov
  • Language: English
  • Type: 21.6 x 14 x 2 cm

Price: 78.77 €

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