The European Union and Russia

Paper Summary:

This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter One introduces the nature of the central issue: EU security policy towards Russia during the period 1992-2004 in the context of the European security issues during those years. It is symptomatic of the dynamics of this changing context that much of the existing literature tends to examine this issue not from the point of view of the EU, but rather via the prism of NATO-Russia relations. As a result, it will be one of the contentions of the present study that there is a "literature gap" in the existing work on this area that, itself, perhaps reflects the Cold War biases, conscious and unconscious, that continue to influence academic studies in this field. Chapter Two analyzes the relevant theoretical approaches and seeks to establish a theoretical paradigm for use in this study. Two influential approaches to the study of international security relationships are examined: neo-functionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism. Each of these theoretical approaches has recently undergone sustained criticism and redevelopment, and this chapter considers this process and its significance for studies, such as the present analysis. Finally, this chapter identifies the fundamental theoretical approach for this study to be liberal intergovernmentalism, deployed within a methodology of quantitative and qualitative research. Chapter Three consists of a review of related literature, subjected to comparative analysis and categorized on the basis of qualitative and quantitative sources. This chapter explores further the issue of the "literature gap" in existing studies, identifying areas in which this dissertation seeks to extend and innovate approaches to the issue under study. Chapter Four is devoted to an analysis of relevant data and its relationship to the theoretical model established in Chapter Two. Chapter Five returns to the research questions and seeks to answer them on the basis of the analytical, theoretical, and comparative work outlined in the preceding chapters. The final section of the dissertation is a conclusion in which the findings of the study are summarized and their relationship to the theoretical models used considered. This also provides a basis for the validity of the theoretical model used to be assessed and for possible avenues of further research to be outlined.

Outline
Introduction
The Problem
The Theoretical Approach
Literature Review
Analysis
Answering the Research Questions

From the Paper:

"The political and economic uncertainty in Russia during 1998-99, not surprisingly, had a deleterious effect on the implementation of the planned work programme and there was some disappointment on the EU side that more progress had not been made. At the second meeting of the Cooperation Council in May 1999 the official communiqu' was much more positive. In general, the PCA has had a major impact on the frequency and breadth of official contacts between the EU and Russia, and laid the basis for more effective cooperation on a wide range of policy areas."

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