Supranational vs. Post-Imperial: Are EU-Russia Relations Leading to a Second Cold War?

  • Abstract:

    European Union-Russia relations are based on exigence, cooperation and conflict. Particularly in the Putin-Medvedev-Putin period (2000-2015) the relations of the EU and Russia shifted gradually from cooperation to conflict. In the current state, the relations between the two is locked up in a deepest crisis ever since the Cold War and if one needs to make sense of this crisis it is necessary to examine the failing soft-power strategies of the EU vis-a-vis the Russia simultaneously with the shifts in the Russian domestic and external politics. Therefore, this paper, while elaborating on the EU policy preferences in 2000s, will examine the Russian assertive foreign policy decisions in the international system. In light of the findings, current developments in Ukraine and Syria will be analyzed in a larger scheme of the polarization between West and the East. With a focus on the crisis in Ukraine and Syria from the perspective of EU-Russia relations this paper will attempt to find indicators of an international systemic transition into a new Cold War period.