The Geopolitical Implications Of The European Neighbourhood Policy

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 2.0, University of Flensburg, language: English, abstract: The Eastern enlargement of the European Union in 2004 alongside the accession in 2007 of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union has paved way for a historical shift of the Union , emergence of new borders, and emergence of new relations and policies towards new neighbours. Despite the fact that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) might be considered as a foreign policy instrument, what seems unknown and less considered is the cost of relationship, intent of the European Union (EU) in relations with new members, interest of both sides, security and stability alongside economic and democratic space. The ENP consolidates the opinion that the limits of Europe is increasingly evasive; the thesis therefore aims at considering or analyzing the EU relations in the view of its implications stemming from the ENP policy toward Ukraine as a member of the ENP.

This book assesses the instruments and measures geared towards determining the EU's relations with it's neighbours. These are channelled on the one hand by the enlargement policy focusing on the Western Balkans and on the other hand by the neighbourhood policy which will enable the integration of Central and Eastern European neighbouring countries without offering membership. Both of these policies have strong local and regional effects in the EU's neighbouring countries. However, little attention has been paid to the perceptions of and impact of these policies in the neighbouring countries themselves. By presenting theoretical contributions and empirical case studies drawing on qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork, this book provides new insights that will be of great interest for students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of Geography, Sociology, Political Science and European Studies.

Should the European Neighbourhood Policy stop at the borders of the European Union’s immediate neighbouring countries? This book is the first full length study of the ’neighbours of the EU’s neighbours’, a concept originally introduced by the European Commission with reference to Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. These regions in the EU’s broader neighbourhood are often perceived as an ’arc of crisis’ from which manifold challenges emanate for Europe. This timely book takes stock of the state of the EU’s cooperation with the neighbours of its neighbours and explores how the concept might help promote security, stability and prosperity beyond the countries which are formally part of the European Neighbourhood Policy. How can the EU create bridges between these regions? What instruments does the EU have at its disposal and how can it link them in order to respond to the challenges and overcome the current fragmentation? One of the conclusions is the suggestion to consider a pragmatic ’EU Strategy for the Neighbours of its Neighbours’ which addresses the needs of the broader EU neighbourhood in a more systematic and consistent manner and helps transform in the long run the ’arc of crisis’ into another ’ring of friends’.

Under the impact of accelerated globalization, transnational integration and international security concerns, the geopolitics of Europe's borders and border regions has become an area of critical interest. The progressive enlargement of the EU has positioned its borders at the heart of recent discussions on the changing nature of the EU, the meaning of 'Europe' and what constitutional shape a more politically unified Europe might take. With enlargement, the EU must elaborate strategies to contend with a fiercely competitive world - and to build fortress-like defences against perceived tensions arising from greater cultural mixing and threats such as terrorism. The authors build up an integral picture of the EU's internal and external borders and borderlands to reveal the processes of re-bordering and social change currently taking place in Europe. They explore issues such as security, immigration, economic development and changing social and political attitudes, as well as the EU's relations with the Islamic world and other world powers. The book embraces an array of disciplinary, ideological and theoretical perspectives, offering detailed case studies of different border regions and the concerns of the local inhabitants, while engaging in broader discussions of developments across Europe, state policies and the EU's relations with neighbouring states. Geopolitics of European Union Enlargement will be of key interest to students and researchers in the fields of European politics, geography, international studies, sociology and anthropology.

The European Union in its neighbourhood is confronted with several challenges as well as opportunities. The degree to which it can promote the geopolitical stabilization of Europe and the spread of economic and political governance, based on democratic ideals in its neighbourhood, will determine the future course of Europe and will be a clear indicator of the success or failure of the European Union on the international scene as a whole. In addition, the security context of Europe has changed profoundly since the end of the Cold war, and with it the perceptions of what role the European Union can play in expanding stability and security throughout the European continent. European Union’s neighbouring states and regions are viewed by European Union member states as the primary source of many of the non-traditional security threats, such as terrorism, migration, trafficking, and transnational organized crime. Addressing the Europe Union’s twenty-first century challenges, this study looks at the policies of the EU towards its neighbours as a critical dimension of the totality of the EU’s foreign and security policy. This volume brings together a broad range of scholars and seeks to highlight some of the main issues that concern the European relations with its neighbour’s countries in the Western Balkans, the Eastern and Southern Europe, and with Russia. In short, the volume raises important, timely issues regarding the challenges and opportunities confronting the European Union in its neighbourhood which both policy makers and academicians will find both informative and though provoking in their efforts to understand the nature and complexity of the European Union actions in its neighbourhood.

This edited volume provides an innovative contribution to the debate on contemporary European geopolitics by tracing some of the new political geographies and geographical imaginations emergent within - and made possible by - the EU's actions in the international arena. Drawing on case studies that range from the Arctic to East Africa, the nine empirical chapters provide a critical geopolitical reading of the ways in which particular places, countries, and regions are brought into the EU's orbit and the ways in which they are made to work for 'EU'rope. The analyses look at how the spaces of 'EU'ropean power and actorness are narrated and created, but also at how 'EU'rope's discursive (and material) strategies of incorporation are differently appropriated by local and regional elites, from the southern shores of the Mediterranean to Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The question of EU border management is a particularly important concern of several contributions, highlighting some of the ways in which the Union's border-work is actively (re)making the European space.

This book looks both backward and forward with regard to the European Union’s political strategies towards its neighbouring countries. By bringing together the perspectives of critical geopolitics, policy studies and border studies, it presents a comprehensive review of the European Neighbourhood Policy and how it impacts the ongoing construction of the EU’s external frontiers. Is the EU committed to promoting integration in a ‘wider’ European space, or is a “fortress Europe” emerging where the strengthening of internal cohesion is coupled with the militarisation of its external borders? The book aims to problematize this question by showing how the EU’s external policies are based on a mixture of openness and closure, inclusion and exclusion, cooperation and securitisation. The European Neighbourhood Policy is a controversial strategy where regionalization and bordering, homogenisations and differentiations, centrifugal and centripetal forces proceed side-by-side, in an explicit attempt to construct a selective, mobile and fragmented border. A specific focus is devoted to the diversity of geo-strategies the EU is pursuing in its neighbouring countries and regions, macro-regional strategies and cross-border cooperation initiatives as new scales of cooperation, and the role of other global players.

Resilience has emerged as a key concept in EU foreign policy. The policy debate around this concept has been vigorous, but theoretical attempts to develop the concept are few. Covering fields of strategical importance, such as economic governance; growth and sustainable development; energy, environment and climate action; education, the labour market, and foreign affairs, this book is one of the first attempts to profoundly theorise the concept of ‘resilience’ in international relations by looking at several policy areas and countries. Faced with multiple crises (the economic crisis, the Brexit referendum, the refugee crisis, terrorist attacks, geopolitics such as events in the Ukraine), and challenges with its integration process, the European Union needs to become not only more intelligent, more inclusive and more sustainable, but also more resilient and more capable of reacting to different internal and external shocks. This book integrates a systemic assessment of the regions’ specific shocks and risks in relation to internal vulnerabilities (i.e. structural economic, social, institutional and political fragility) and to their long and medium-term impact on the stability, security and sustainable development in the region.

Contributors offer new approaches to the study of the European Neighbourhood Policy. While the main emphasis is on the empirical assessment of the impact that the ENP has had to-date and on the factors that have shaped its implementation, it also provides new theoretical and methodological perspectives on how to study this policy area.

Originally published in 2005. This comprehensive volume examines the issue of Europe-making related to the post EU/NATO enlargement and the post 9/11 situation. Dual enlargement and the War on Terrorism are raising important questions for various actors in Europe, in particular what these developments will mean for the future of regional cooperation and the development of a regional subjectivity. Such concerns have been further compounded by America's distinction between 'New Europe' and 'Old Europe'. The volume analyzes at both policy and conceptual levels how the dual enlargement and the War on Terrorism will impact on regional cooperation in northern Europe. It examines how events in northern Europe have helped shape the nature of European space, borders and governance, including how the EU, the US and Russia have each highlighted northern Europe as a special case to be utilized and learnt from in dealing with problems elsewhere in Europe and globally. Presenting original articles, the volume will appeal to scholars of regional politics as well as security, international relations theory and geopolitics.