Russian-European political relations have always been problematic and one of the main reasons for this is the different perspectives on even the very basic notions and concepts of political life. With a worldwide recession, the problems as well as the opportunities in Russian-European relations are magnified. While most works on Russian-European, Russian-American and Russian-West relations focus on current policies and explain them from a standard set of explanatory variables, this book penetrates deeper into the structural and ideational differences that tend to bring about misperceptions, miscalculations, misinterpretations and misdeeds in this two-directional relationship. It applies a very broad conceptual framework to analyse differences that are as relevant for Europe and the EU as it is to Russia’s immediate neighbours and, while doing so, identifies the key factors that will dominate Russia-EU ties in the next decade.

Contents

Preface 1. A Reassertive Russia and an Expanding European Union Kjell Engelbrekt and Bertil Nygren Part 1: Norms, Values, and Institutions 2. Russia and Europe after the Cold War: Cultural Convergence or Civilizational Clash Russell Bova 3. Perceptions of Democracy and Democratic Institution-Building – Electoral Democracy the Russian Way Bertil Nygren 4. The Theory and Practice of Reciprocity in EU-Russian Relations Tatiana Romanova 5. Beyond the Paradigm of Integration in EU-Russian Relations: Sovereignty and the Politics of Resentmen Sergei Prozorov Part 2: Moscow, Brussels and the Big Three 6. The Return of History: Hard Security Issues in the Russia-Europe Relationship Yuri Fedorov 7. Russia-EU Relations: The Economic Dimension Boris Frumkin 8. German-Russian Relations, 1992-2009 Angela Stent 9. Russia and the European Great Powers: France Isabelle Facon Part 3. ’In-Between-Europe’ 10. European Energy Policy Meets Russian Bilateralism: The Case of South Eastern Europe Kjell Engelbrekt and Ilian Vassilev 11. Ukraine’s Democracy and the Russia Factor Petro Burkovsky and Olexiy Haran 12. Riding Three Horses: Moldova’s Enduring Identity as a Strategy for Survival Patricia Fogarty 13. Conclusions and Outlook Kjell Engelbrekt and Bertil Nygren

Author Bio

Bertil Nygren and Kjell Engelbrekt are Associate Professors of Political Science at the Swedish National Defence College and at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Sweden.