Russia and the New Europe: Strategies for an Evolving Relationship

Abstract

An impartial but well educated observer analyzing international relations in contemporary Europe might conclude that Russia has been isolated from the new Europe after the dual enlargement of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and that containment, first defined in 1947, has been fully achieved. Not only has the Soviet ‘empire’ dissolved into fifteen independent states, but the core state, the Russian Federation, is not a full member of either of the two permanent standing bodies of Europe — the EU and NATO — although it is a member of some all-Europe agreements. While the Russian Federation involves itself with NATO through the Russian-NATO Council (RNC),1 all former Warsaw Pact states except Russia are now full members of NATO. While Russia has a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the EU,2 four former members of the Soviet-led Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) are now EU members, and two have achieved candidate status. Moreover, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the three Baltic republics of the former Soviet Union (FSU), independent since 1992, are full members of NATO and the EU. Thus dual enlargement has incorporated most of Russia’s key neighbours; Ukraine, the second largest nation of the FSU, is actively campaigning for EU and NATO membership.KeywordsEuropean UnionForeign PolicyFormer Soviet UnionFull MemberNorth Atlantic Treaty OrganizationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.