EU in the Modern World: problems of Regional Policy and Foreign Political Identity

Abstract

The article analyzes the regional policy of the European Union and the problems of regionalization through the prism of modern theoretical provisions about the region and identifying its place in the existing system of international relations; shows the EU's practical steps to assert its role as an independent actor in the world arena. Attention is focused on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the processes of globalization, on the key principles of which ‒ the free movement of people and goods ‒ were dealt a noticeable blow. The pandemic has intensified the processes of regionalization, the strengthening of which occurred as a natural response to the challenge. The author of the article analyzes the problems of regionalism through the prism of a collective monograph by well-known experts on regionalism and international relations E.B. Mikhailenko and V. I. Mikhailenko "European Union's Foreign Policy in the XXI century. European interregionalism", which became a continuation of the scientific research of the authors at the Ural Federal University. The article focuses on such vulnerabilities of the EU's regional policy as poorly formed EU foreign policy identity; dependence in the field of security on the United States; insufficient use of the tools of "hard power" to defend their interests and promote their values and ideals. The still insufficiently meaningful manifestations and consequences of the pandemic have given additional relevance to the monograph, clarifying the origins, difficulties, trends in the implementation of the EU's foreign regional policy, the achievement of interregionalism, its goals and limits