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Europe’s Eastern Crisis: The Geopolitics of Asymmetry
Book
Carnegie Europe

Europe’s Eastern Crisis: The Geopolitics of Asymmetry

In recent years, a series of crises have erupted on the European Union’s eastern borders. In response, the EU has begun to map its own form of “liberal-redux geopolitics” that combines various strategic logics.

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By Richard Youngs
Published on Mar 31, 2017

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Hardback - $67.13Kindle - $23.00Paperback - $28.97
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The Europe Program in Washington explores the political and security developments within Europe, transatlantic relations, and Europe’s global role. Working in coordination with Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the program brings together U.S. and European policymakers and experts on strategic issues facing Europe.

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Democracy, Conflict, and Governance

The Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program is a leading source of independent policy research, writing, and outreach on global democracy, conflict, and governance. It analyzes and seeks to improve international efforts to reduce democratic backsliding, mitigate conflict and violence, overcome political polarization, promote gender equality, and advance pro-democratic uses of new technologies.

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Source: Cambridge University Press

In recent years, a series of crises have erupted on the European Union’s eastern borders. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the subsequent conflict in eastern Ukraine presented the EU with a major foreign policy challenge, both in Ukraine and across the other countries of the Eastern Partnership. In response, the EU has begun to map its own form of “liberal-redux geopolitics” that combines various strategic logics. This book traces the effect of these crises on the foreign policy of the EU, examining the changes in policies toward the countries on its eastern borders, the EU’s review of the Eastern Partnership, as well as the EU’s relations with Russia overall. It goes on to uncover whether the EU has contained the crisis or if it has set up new conditions for more instability in the future.

Advance Praise

“Richard Youngs’s new account of the complex geopolitical context in the Eastern Partnership region provides a nuanced, sophisticated, and empirically rich study that is invaluable in taking into account the opinions of diplomats, policymakers, and civil society in the EaP states themselves.”
—Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine, former Georgian foreign minister, and president of the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies

“Ukraine and other states between these two ‘empires’ feel the heat again, and Richard Youngs’s book expertly maps a complex mosaic of power, ambition, and brinkmanship. Youngs’s engaging and balanced analysis is indispensable reading for everyone trying to comprehend the ongoing geopolitical turn and the evolution of the EU’s foreign and security policy.”
—Jan Zielonka, professor of European Politics, University of Oxford

About the Author

Richard Youngs

Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program

Richard Youngs is a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, based at Carnegie Europe. He works on EU foreign policy and on issues of international democracy.

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Hardback - $67.13Kindle - $23.00Paperback - $28.97
RussiaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeIranForeign PolicySecurity

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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