Abstract
How can we explain the re-emergence of Eurasianist projects in the 21st century? In particular, why is President Vladimir Putin so keen on the idea of Eurasian integration, making it the centrepiece of his third term in the Kremlin? As a ‘big idea’, the whole notion is riven by contradiction, and thus the question inevitably arises about whether the present Russian administration has set off on a doomed historical project. Equally, if regional integration is the order of the day in Latin America and many other parts of the world, not least in Western Europe with the development of the European Union (EU), then why should not some of the former Soviet states come together for mutual benefit? Why is it that the putative Eurasian Economic Union is treated as some sort of sui generis illegitimate regional organization, unlike its peers in the contemporary world?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
For a wide-ranging study, see Marlene Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire, translated by Mischa Gabowitsch (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
Dmitry Trenin, The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization (Moscow and Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001).
Dmitry Trenin, Post-Imperium: A Eurasian Story (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011).
For a detailed analysis, see Rilka Dragneva and Kataryna Wolczuk (eds), Eurasian Economic Integration: Law, Policy and Politics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013).
Roy Allison, Stephen White and Margot Light, ‘Belarus between East and West’, The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2005, pp. 487–511.
Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Nicole J. Jacksom, ‘Trans-Regional Security Organisations and Statist Multilateralism in Eurasia’, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 66, No. 2, 2014, pp. 181–203.
Cf. Stephen D. Krasner, Sovereignty: Organised Hypocrisy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
For an early study, see Mark Bassin, ‘Russia between Europe and Asia: The Ideological Construction of Geographical Space’, Slavic Review, Vol. 50, No. 1, Spring 1991, pp. 1–17, and his numerous later publications on the subject, notably ‘Classical Eurasianism and the Geopolitics of Russian Identity’, Ab Imperio, No. 2, 2003, pp. 257–268.
Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum, translated and annotated by G. L. Ulmen (New York: Telos Press Publishing, 2006), Part II.
Louiza Odysseos and Fabio Petitio, ‘Introduction: The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt’, in Louiza Odysseos and Fabio Petitio (eds), The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal War and the Crisis of Global Order (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 13.
J. Peter Burgess, ‘The Evolution of European Union Law and Carl Schmitt’s Theory of the Nomos of Europe’, in Louiza Odysseos and Fabio Petitio (eds), The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal War and the Crisis of Global Order (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 185–201, at p. 199, fn 3.
Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, 2nd edn (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), Chapter 10.
Viatcheslav Morozov, The Forced Choice between Russia and the West: The Geopolitics of Alienation, PONARS Policy Memo 327, November 2004.
For a discussion of the issue, see Hiski Haukkala, ‘A Norm-Maker or a Norm-Taker? The Changing Normative Parameters of Russia’s Place in Europe’, in Ted Hopf (ed.), Russia’s European Choice (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pp. 35–56. See also his ‘The European Union as a Regional Normative Hegemon: The Case of European Neighbourhood Policy’, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 60, No. 9, November 2008, pp. 1601–1622.
For a broad overview of the historical context of Russian neorevisionism, see Andrei P. Tsygankov, Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
John W. Burton, World Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), in particular pp. 35–45 about the cobweb model.
For a good overview, see David Held and Anthony McGrew, Globalization/Anti-Globalization: Beyond the Great Divide, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007).
See Richard Sakwa, ‘The Cold Peace: Russo-Western Relations as a Mimetic Cold War’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2013, pp. 203–224.
Evert Faber van der Meulen, ‘Gas Supply and EU-Russia Relations’, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 61, No. 5, July 2009, pp. 833–856.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001).
On this, see Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (London: Penguin Books, 2005).
Alan Milward, The European Rescue of the Nation State. 2nd edn (London and New York: Routledge, 2000).
Christopher Bickerton, European Integration: From Nation States to Member States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr, Director, Strategic Studies Institute and US Army War College Press, Foreword to Stephen J. Blank (ed.), Politics and Economics in Putin’s Russia (Carlisle Barracks, PA: US Army War College Press, 2014), p. vii.
In Stefan Hedlund, ‘Economic Reform under Putin 2.0: Will Petrodollars Suffice to Keep the Ship Afloat’, in Stephen J. Blank (ed.), Politics and Economics in Putin’s Russia (Carlisle Barracks, PA: US Army War College Press, 2014), pp. 67–123 at p. 87.
Grzegorz Gromadzki and čukasz Wenerski, Society — The Decisive Player in Ukrainian Politics? (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Stiftung, February 2014), p. 42. http://www.isp.org.pl/uploads/pdf/86728390.pdf.
Andrei Kokoshin, Real’nyi suverenitet v sovremennoi miropoliticheskoi sistemy, 3rd edn (Moscow: Evropa, 2006).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Richard Sakwa
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sakwa, R. (2015). Eurasian Integration: A Project for the 21st Century?. In: Lane, D., Samokhvalov, V. (eds) The Eurasian Project and Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137472960_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137472960_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-69239-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47296-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)