TY - CHAP

T1 - COPING WITH THE CHANGING WORLD ORDER: THE CASE OF RUSSIA

T2 - глава в книге

AU - Mikhaylenko, Ekaterina B.

AU - Adami, I. M

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - The growth and overlap of interregional projects around the world challenge the Russian political elite. In its turn, Russia does not cease to generate its own projects of regional and interregional importance. In the Russian political com­munity, the ability to put forward and promote large geopolitical or geo-economic projects has always been considered one of the main features of a great power (Tsvetov 2017). Now the Great Eurasian Partnership (GEP) project has become a new construct to be explored by the Russian expert community. Putin first introduced that concept in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assem­bly on 3 December 2015. Almost three years after the first report on the project, the public space still has not seen a policy document or a public remark at any high level, which describes specifically the substance of or at least a clear for­mat for this new idea. A special project, the Agenda for Eurasia was created with the aim of creating a pool of ideas within the framework of the Valdai Discussion Club. This project is interesting because it demonstrates the search for a new paradigm of region-building and interregion-building in Eurasia. Although such a paradigm has not yet been conceptualized, some of its outlines can be identified. Firstly, the project demonstrates a deep theoretical elaboration of modern approaches to region-building, including the European experience, with the aim of forming a concept that "will not be based on copying or striving to "cling' to the East or the West, but on our own ideas and visions" (Bordachev 2017f). Secondly, it is an attempt to learn from the mistakes made in previous region-building exercises in Eurasia and in the post-Soviet space. Thirdly, there is an analysis of the opportunity to utilize "a unique emerging international environment in Eurasia that eliminates the possibility and neces­sity of an unquestionable hegemon's arrival" (Bordachev 2017a). Nevertheless, the region's uniqueness and long history are often obstacles to understanding commonality and shared values. The overarching purpose of the study pre­sented in this chapter was to answer the question: what is the GEP? Having placed the GEP within different theoretical frameworks of region-building as a first-generation hybrid type, the study has identified the project's main fea­tures and challenges according to the Valdai Club's experts and suggested that Russia should disaggregate its interregional aspirations into steps and mean­while prioritize the Eurasian Economic Union as a base for the creation of the GEP.

AB - The growth and overlap of interregional projects around the world challenge the Russian political elite. In its turn, Russia does not cease to generate its own projects of regional and interregional importance. In the Russian political com­munity, the ability to put forward and promote large geopolitical or geo-economic projects has always been considered one of the main features of a great power (Tsvetov 2017). Now the Great Eurasian Partnership (GEP) project has become a new construct to be explored by the Russian expert community. Putin first introduced that concept in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assem­bly on 3 December 2015. Almost three years after the first report on the project, the public space still has not seen a policy document or a public remark at any high level, which describes specifically the substance of or at least a clear for­mat for this new idea. A special project, the Agenda for Eurasia was created with the aim of creating a pool of ideas within the framework of the Valdai Discussion Club. This project is interesting because it demonstrates the search for a new paradigm of region-building and interregion-building in Eurasia. Although such a paradigm has not yet been conceptualized, some of its outlines can be identified. Firstly, the project demonstrates a deep theoretical elaboration of modern approaches to region-building, including the European experience, with the aim of forming a concept that "will not be based on copying or striving to "cling' to the East or the West, but on our own ideas and visions" (Bordachev 2017f). Secondly, it is an attempt to learn from the mistakes made in previous region-building exercises in Eurasia and in the post-Soviet space. Thirdly, there is an analysis of the opportunity to utilize "a unique emerging international environment in Eurasia that eliminates the possibility and neces­sity of an unquestionable hegemon's arrival" (Bordachev 2017a). Nevertheless, the region's uniqueness and long history are often obstacles to understanding commonality and shared values. The overarching purpose of the study pre­sented in this chapter was to answer the question: what is the GEP? Having placed the GEP within different theoretical frameworks of region-building as a first-generation hybrid type, the study has identified the project's main fea­tures and challenges according to the Valdai Club's experts and suggested that Russia should disaggregate its interregional aspirations into steps and mean­while prioritize the Eurasian Economic Union as a base for the creation of the GEP.

UR - https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=41580408

M3 - Chapter

SN - 978-3-8474-2328-7

SP - 157

EP - 177

BT - REVISITING REGIONALISM AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD ORDER

A2 - FERON, ELISE

PB - Verlag Stahleisen GmbH

CY - Berlin

ER -