Eurasian Integration - The View from Within

✍ Scribed by Piotr Dutkiewicz, Richard Sakwa

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 343
• Series: Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe 60
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

As Eurasia and the adjacent territories become more important to the world, there is increasing interest from international powers, accompanied by attempts to give institutional form to traditional economic and security links within the region. This book includes a range of substantive work from scholars based in the region, offering contrasting perspectives on the process of Eurasian integration and its place in the world. Chapters consider economic, political, social and security developments, with notable studies of the major countries involved in the development of the Eurasian Economic Union. The work also examines the connections between the region and China, greater Asia and the European Union. It outlines the varying dynamics, with populations growing in Central Asia while at best stagnant elsewhere. The book discusses the increasing strategic significance of the region and explores how the new post-Soviet states are growing in national cohesion and political self-confidence. Above all, the book examines the concept of ’Eurasia’, outlining the debates about the concept and how various aspects of the legacy of ‘Eurasianism’ contribute to contemporary plans for integration. The book argues that although regional integration is very much a popular idea in our age, with the potential for economic benefits and increased international influence, in practice contemporary projects for Eurasian integration have been highly ambiguous and contested. Nevertheless, significant steps have been taken towards the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union. The book analyses developments to date, noting the achievements as well as the challenges.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Maps
Introduction: Eu–Ru–Asian integration?
Eurasia from within
The logic of the work and definition of terms
New regionalism vs. new utopia
Notes
1. Challenges of Eurasian integration
Dynamics of contemporary regionalism
The foundations of Eurasian regionalism
Towards the Eurasian Union
‘Greater Europe’ and the clash of integrations
The politics of Eurasian integration
Conclusion
Notes
2. Eurasianism as a ‘philosophy of nation’
Notes
3. Eurasianism as an idea, civilizational concept and integration challenge
A contested concept
Contemporary debates
Achievements and problems
Conclusion: global perspectives
Notes
4. Eurasian economic union: achievements and prospects
Eurasian integration: stages and institutions
The economic impact of integration
Growth potential
Enlarging the core of Eurasian integration
From regional integration to Greater Eurasia
Notes
5. Russia and the Eurasian union
Russia’s place in Eurasian integration
The Russian concept of Eurasian integration
Enhancing Russia’s appeal
Conclusion
Notes
6. Kazakhstan and Eurasian integration
Notes
7. Belarus between the EU and Eurasian Economic Union
At the crossroads
The EU and Belarus: mission prevented?
The EEU and Belarus: muddled beyond redemption?
The public dimension
Conclusion
Notes
References
8. Ukraine: between Europe and Eurasia
Civilizational divides in Ukrainian society
The Russian factor in Ukrainian society and politics
The European factor in Ukrainian society and politics
Ukraine’s European choice and/or Eurasian integration
Debates about the choice between European and Eurasian integration
The conflict between European and Eurasian integration models: public opinion
Who is who in the pro-European and pro-Eurasian integration camps
Notes
9. Ukraine: between Eurasia and Europe
Economic and legal terms of Ukraine’s associate EU membership
Why Ukraine and the Customs Union need each other
Conclusion
Notes
10. The EU and the Eurasian Economic Union: between partnership and threat?
The EU as a global actor
Towards an EU-EEU partnership?
The Eurasian Economic Union as a rival to the EU?
Conclusion
Note
References
11. Europeanization and the Eurasian Economic Union
Europeanization through the CU at the country level
Limitations
Summary
Outlook
Notes
References
12. Central Asia: from peripherality to centrality
Central Asia: foreign trade and economic integration
The financial aspect of cooperation and integration in Central Asia
Prospects for regional integration in Central Asia
Notes
13. Eurasian perspectives on regionalism: Central Asia and beyond
Geopolitical pluralism in post-Soviet Central Asia and Eurasian integration
Dilemmas of Eurasian integration for Moscow
Eurasianism in the context of Russia’s foreign policy
The American and Chinese ‘silk road’ projects as geopolitical alternatives to Eurasian integration
Notes
References
14. Turkey: rising power or emerging dream?
Introduction
Ideologies of Eurasianism in Turkey and narratives on Turkey’s role in Eurasia
Turkey’s policies towards the Black Sea sub-region of Eurasia
Turkey’s policies towards the Central Asian sub-region of Eurasia
Responses of regional and global actors to Turkey’s initiatives in Eurasia
Conclusion
Notes
References
15. The historic development of Eurasia’s regional structure
Historical patterns
Periodization
Patterns of modernization
The era of globalization
The globalization of globalization
Conclusion
Notes
16. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, China and Eurasian integration
Eurasian integration and the SCO: a missing link?
The SCO and CES: tales of two integrating mechanisms
China going West: too little for Beijing, too much for Moscow?
Russia as part of China’s westward strategy
SCO and CES: beyond the ‘competition and cooperation’ mix
Conclusion: Putin and Xi for the next decade
Notes
17. The Eurasian moment in global politics: a comparative analysis of great power strategies for regional integration
Introduction
Imagining Eurasia
Different understandings of Eurasian integration
The potential integration of China and Eurasia
Conclusion
Acknowledgement
Notes
18. Eurasia: the burden of responsibility
From East to West
The not entirely Eurasian Union
The still Eurasian Union
Russia’s self-determination
A new structure for globalization
Notes
Index

✦ Subjects

Area Studies, Development Studies, Environment, Social Work, Urban Studies, Law, Politics & International Relations