Understanding Conflict between Russia and the EU: The Limits of Integration

222 Pages·2006·0.746 MB·English

by  Sergei Prozorov (auth.)

Understanding Conflict
between Russia and the EU
The Limits of Integration
Sergei Prozorov
Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies
Series Editor: Oliver Richmond, Reader, School of International Relations,
University of St Andrews
Titles include:
James Ker-Lindsay
EU ACCESSION AND UN PEACEKEEPING IN CYPRUS
Carol McQueen
HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION AND SAFETY ZONES
Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda
Sergei Prozorov
UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EU
The Limits of Integration
Oliver P. Richmond
THE TRANSFORMATION OF PEACE
Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies
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By the same author
POLITICAL PEDAGOGY OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: A Study in Historical
Ontology of Russian Postcommunism
Understanding Conflict
between Russia and the EU
The Limits of Integration
Sergei Prozorov
Professor of International Relations
Petrozovodsk State University, Russia
© Sergei Prozorov 2006
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-9689-3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Prozorov, Sergei
Understanding conflict between Russia and the EU:the limits of
integration/Sergei Prozorov.
p. cm. — (Rethinking peace and conflict studies)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. European Union—Russia (Federation) 2. Russia (Federation)—
Relations—Europe. 3. Europe—Relations—Russia (Federation)
4. Russia (Federation)—Economic policy—1991– I. Title. II. Series.
HC240.25.R +
341.242′20947—dc22 2005045606
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
To Marina
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Contents
Preface ix
1 Approaching EU–Russian Conflicts: Beyond
Transitionalism and Traditionalism 1
Introduction 1
Cooperation and conflict in the EU–Russian strategic
partnership 3
Transitionalism/traditionalism: a critique of existing
approaches to EU–Russian relations 11
Conflict as a discursive structure: towards an interpretative
model of EU–Russian conflict 20
2 A European Country Outside Europe: EU Enlargement
and the Problematic of Exclusion 27
From issue to identity conflict: the ‘Schengen curtain’ and
the oscillations of the problematic of exclusion 27
Out of the united Europe: the liberal criticism of
Russia’s exclusion 33
Liberation from the ‘European myth’: left conservatism
and the problem of ‘false Europe’ 38
Conclusion: from exclusion to hierarchical inclusion 43
3 From Object to Subject: Intersubjectivity and the
Problematic of Self-exclusion 46
The lack of strategic intersubjectivity: issue and identity
conflicts in the narrative of self-exclusion 46
‘Liberal empire’: self-exclusion and the strategy of
redoubling of Europe 54
Getting over Europe: left conservatism and the demise of
the question of ‘European identity’ 59
Conclusion: beyond the exclusion/inclusion opposition
in EU–Russian relations 68
4 Sovereignty and Integration in EU–Russian Encounters:
an Interpretative Model of Conflict Analysis 74
Structural determinants in EU–Russian encounters 74
Interactional determinants in EU–Russian encounters 95
vii
viii Contents
5 Dissensual Interfaces: Interactional Asymmetries and
EU–Russian Conflicts 102
European exclusion of Russia: the problem of visa and
passport regimes 102
Russia’s self-exclusion from Europe: the problematic of
integrated cross-border governance 111
6 Equivalent Interfaces: the Limits of Integration and the
Stability of Sovereignty 128
Cross-border integration and its limits: the case of
Euregio Karelia 128
Mutual delimitation: intersubjectivity and
sovereign stability 137
7 The Persistence of Sovereignty: Russia and the EU at the
Limit of Integration 157
The paradoxes of integration in EU–Russian relations 157
Toward a common European pluralism: EU–Russian
relations and interaction without integration 175
Notes 185
Bibliography 193
Index 208
Preface
In contemporary International Relations we tend to think of integration
in exclusively positive terms as conducive to peace and the prevention
of conflicts. The process of European integration has been explicitly
advocated as a ‘peace project’ that would foreclose the very possibility
of violent conflict between European countries and thus transcend
the conflict-ridden ‘Westphalian’ system of sovereign states. As the
successive EU enlargements demonstrate, this ‘peace project’ has
been relatively successful, attracting other European states towards
the process of integration, even as some of the founding member
states presently appear less than enthusiastic about its prospects. Even
the Russian Federation, whose membership in the EU was never
officially discussed even in the long-term perspective, has declared
itscentral foreign policy objective to be ‘integration into Europe’.
Throughout the almost two decades of Russian post-communism and
despite all the dramatic twists and turns in Russian politics, this ideal
has been a constant feature of Russian foreign policy, even though
the paths of its actualisation remained fervently contested by rival
political forces.
At the same time, this integrationist pathos became strongly under-
mined from the late 1990s onwards by the emergence of numerous
conflictual issues in EU–Russian relations. In such policy areas as trade
tariffs and visa regimes, the EU was perceived as unduly exclusionary
with regard to Russia, installing new barriers and dividing lines that
contradicted its own rhetoric of openness, cooperation and inclusion.
On the other hand, when the EU assumed a more active and assertive
position with regard to Russian politics, e.g. on the questions of ‘freedom
of speech’ or ‘civil society’, its interference was perceived as illegitimate
and hierarchical. Despite the officially proclaimed ‘strategic partnership’
between equals, EU–Russian relations increasingly became viewed as
an asymmetric ‘subject–object’ relationship, from which Russia must
disentangle itself. Thus, besides being a ‘peace project’ of conflict
management and resolution, integration can also generate new conflicts,
determined no longer by ‘Westphalian’ sovereign imperatives, but by
factors that are immanent to the ideal of integration itself.
This book is an attempt at a comprehensive analysis of conflictual
dispositions in EU–Russian relations and their theoretical interpretation
ix