Public Lecture “Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus: a common, contested or fragmented neighbourhood?” by Professor Laure Delcour (University Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)

On December 16, 2020, Professor Laure Delcour (University Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris) will give an online public lecture “Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus: a common, contested or fragmented neighbourhood?” launching a cycle of public lectures organised by the MA Programme “Comparative Politics of Eurasia”.

Abstract:

In the late1990-early 2000s, the EU and Russia envisaged cooperating in what would become a “common neighbourhood” after the 2004 EU’s enlargement, namely Eastern Europe and the

South Caucasus. However, in the early 2010s the region turned into a “contested neighbourhood” where the EU’s and Russia’s integration projects (the Eastern Partnership and the Eurasian Economic Union) collide. Yet the resulting picture is not a clear-cut division between countries engaged in Russia-driven and EU-led projects. While Russia is able to use its multifaceted leverages with a view to undermining further integration with the EU, it does not offer a fully-fledged alternative model which may prove attractive to Eastern European and South Caucasian countries. Conversely, while unable to either exert influence over conflicts or counter Russia’s security clout the EU remains attractive for many of the in-between countries. The resulting picture is a fragmented neighbourhood, in which EU-Russia interaction and domestic developments are tightly entangled.

Research interests of Laure Delcour focus on the diffusion and reception of EU norms and policies as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), as well as region-building processes in Eurasia. She has been involved in EU-funded projects on the ENP/Eastern Partnership, both as a researcher under the H2020 project EU-STRAT and as a scientific coordinator of the FP7 project “Exploring the Security-Democracy Nexus in the Caucasus” (CASCADE). As part of a French-British research project (EUIMPACTEAST, ANR-ESRC, 2011-2014), she investigated the EU’s influence on domestic change in four post-Soviet countries (Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Professor Delcour has extensively lectured on EU institutions and decision-making, the European Neighbourhood Policy, EU-Russia relations and Russia’s foreign policy at Sciences-Po Paris, Sciences-Po Strasbourg, INALCO Paris and MGIMO (Moscow). She was previously Deputy Director of the French-Russian Research Centre in Social Sciences.

When: 16 December 2020, 18.10-19.30 (MSK)

Where: Zoom

Language: English