New from West Point Press: Europeanization and De-Europeanization in the Eastern Partnership Countries
How do countries on the European Union’s eastern borders navigate the opportunities, pressures, and limits of European integration? A new volume from West Point Press, Europeanization and De-Europeanization in the Eastern Partnership Countries, examines this question through a comparative study of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
Edited by Nataliya D. Brantly, PhD, the volume offers a timely examination of Europeanization and its limits against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, evolving European Union enlargement debates, and continuing political and strategic transformation across the post-Soviet region.
Understanding Europeanization and De-Europeanization
Europeanization is often understood as a process through which countries adopt European Union norms, institutions, policies, and practices. But that process is rarely linear.
Europeanization and De-Europeanization in the Eastern Partnership Countries introduces de-Europeanization as a framework for understanding what happens when alignment with the European Union stalls, shifts, or reverses. The volume examines how domestic politics, national identity, security pressures, and economic interests influence the ways individual states respond to European influence.
Through comparative analysis of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the contributors demonstrate that European integration and influence take different forms across the Eastern Partnership. Rather than simply adopting European norms, states actively negotiate, adapt, resist, and sometimes reconsider their relationships with the European project.
The book also examines major European Union initiatives, including the European Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, placing these policies within the broader history of EU engagement with its eastern neighbors. Russia’s war against Ukraine and renewed discussions about EU enlargement provide an important contemporary context for understanding these changing relationships.
Meet the Editor
Volume editor, Nataliya D. Brantly, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Government & International Affairs Program within the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech. She also serves as Program Director of the Eastern Partnership Research Program at the Center for European & Transatlantic Studies (CEUTS), a Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, and as Deputy Director of the Tech for Humanity Lab.
A Timely Resource on Europe’s Eastern Borders
Accessible while analytically rigorous, Europeanization and De-Europeanization in the Eastern Partnership Countries provides a valuable resource for scholars, students, policymakers, and readers interested in European Union enlargement, European integration, Eastern Europe, post-Soviet transformation, and international security.
Europeanization and De-Europeanization in the Eastern Partnership Countries is now available in paperback and digital editions.
Explore the book and access the digital edition: Europeanization and De-Europeanization in the Eastern Partnership Countries