The Study Of The EU's Eastern Partnership

The Eastern Partnership(EaP)is a regional institutional arrangement established by the EU for neighboring countries in the east.It realizes the differentiation of neighboring countries' policies in key regions,complements and perfects the EU's good neighborliness policy,greatly enhances the level of contact and cooperation between the EU and the eastern partner countries,and makes the bilateral relations enter a new stage of development.The EaP involves close cooperation between the EU and its neighbors on the domestic and diplomatic level.It has a wide scope and is a special "partnership" that is different from the EU's traditional foreign policy.The core question to be discussed in this article is:What is the nature of the EaP?What is the relationship between the EaP and EU's enlargement?What is the driving force behind the development of the EaP?What impact did the EaP have in the course of development and changes,what dilemmas have been encountered,and what are the prospects for future development?After the end of the cold war,the geopolitical map of Eurasia changed dramatically.The United States strengthened its political and military intervention in the former Soviet Union countries with the help of NATO,curbing Russia's rise again and maintaining its unipolar hegemony.The strategy of "taking the lead in European affairs" and trying to enhance the ability of European integration.The geographical boundaries of the EU have been greatly expanded,bordering on some unstable countries in the eastern region.The security situation of the neighboring countries in the East is directly related to the security and stability of the EU itself,which has attracted great attention of the EU.Its position in EU foreign policy and foreign relations has been significantly improved.The"European Security Strategy"emphasizes that the surrounding areas are the focus of EU foreign policy.On the one hand,the EU provides the central and Eastern European countries with membership by expanding its policy;on the other hand,it provides assistance to the former Soviet countries in the eastern region through the neighboring country policy to promote their reform and transformation.After three stages of evolution,namely,active limited contact,active high-profile intervention and comprehensive and in-depth participation,the EU's influence in the eastern region has been greatly enhanced.Generally speaking,in the context of the changing geopolitical situation in the European continent,it is the inevitable choice for the EU to expand its sphere of influence eastward and strengthen its relations with its Eastern neighbors in line with the EU's development strategy.The war between Russia and Georgia has brought about new changes in the geopolitical situation around the EU.In May 2009,the EU launched the EaP for six Eastern neighboring countries of Ukraine,Moldova,Belarus,Georgia,Azerbaijan and Asia.As an integral part of the European Neighborhood Policy(ENP),it aims to translate the EU security strategy into concrete actions,accelerate and deepen the political ties and economic integration level between the EU and the eastern partner countries by signing the association state agreement(AA),providing market access and facilitating visa,trying to solve the root causes of extremism,crisis and conflict,to achieve security and stability,these countries will eventually be tied to the "chariot"of the west,and become the front position to guard against and resist Russia.Due to its special geographical location,the EaP countries have always been the focus of great powers' contention,especially Ukraine,which is located in the main road between Russia and the West.Combined with historical reasons,it is of great strategic significance to Russia and is the key partner for Russia to realize the dream of great power rejuvenation again.After the collapse of the Soviet Union,NATO and the European Union both expanded eastward in spite of Russia's strong opposition,which constantly encroached on Russia's traditional sphere of influence,resulting in the squeeze of Russia's strategic living space.The EaP,as a geopolitical motivated foreign policy,constantly touches Russia's bottom line.Under the strong intervention of the United States and NATO,the contradictions between the two sides are difficult to reconcile for a time,which eventually leads to the outbreak of Ukraine crisis and serious geopolitical crisis.The EaP countries are deeply trapped in the vortex of great power game.The severe geopolitical situation in the eastern region makes the EU feel that it is becoming more and more "insecure".It should not only deal with the increasingly complex non-traditional security threats,but also face the grim reality of the return of traditional security threats.Historical institutionalism provides a theoretical perspective for us to deeply understand the EaP,especially to comprehensively examine the logic of its development and change,The EaP has a mixed character in the historical process of development and change,and its change pattern is a mixture of path dependence,key nodes and gradual transformation.As a part of the EU's good neighborliness policy,the EaP has obvious path dependence on EU's enlargement in terms of organizational structure,personnel arrangement,cooperation mechanism,policy tools and geo strategic objectives.The geopolitical conflicts such as the Russia Georgia war and the Ukrainian crisis have become the key nodes to change the geopolitical situation in the eastern part of the European Union.Without destroying the original rules,the EU optimized the EaP,gradually adjusted the original value-oriented thinking,adopted the principle of priority of interests,and constantly sought pragmatic adjustments A series of institutional breakthroughs have been made to achieve gradual transformation.Europe and the United States promoted a series of geopolitical strategies represented by the EaP in the space of the former Soviet Union,which constantly encroached on Russia's traditional sphere of influence,intensified the geopolitical game between the West and Russia,and changed the geopolitical pattern of Eurasia.The severe sanctions from the West urge Russia to accelerate the strategy of "turning,to the East" and seek cooperation with countries in the Asia Pacific region,which provides an opportunity for the upgrading and deepening of Sino Russian cooperation.Due to the comprehensive consideration of economy,geopolitics,influence and discourse power,the EU has,to a certain extent,abandoned the traditional concept of"exclusive" peripheral policy dominated by values and began to attach importance to cooperation with third parties,this is in line with the win-win vision of multi-party cooperation actively advocated and practiced by China,and will be more conducive to synergizing China's the'Belt and Road' strategy with the EU's Eurasian connectivity strategy in the future.At present,the world is in a great change situation that has not happened in a century.The global geopolitical situation and international pattern have undergone profound adjustment and remodeling.In the face of the increasingly fierce game among big powers,the increasing divergence between Europe and the United States,and frequent internal crises,the EU has begun to seek"Strategic Autonomy",advocate"European sovereignty",and strive to become an influential geopolitical actor.As a peripheral governance policy of the EU,the EaP is an institutional arrangement with geopolitical features.The pursuit of the maximization of geopolitical interests is the main driving force for its development and transformation.Therefore,this study takes historical institutionalism as the overall perspective and main line of the full text,focusing on the combination of geopolitical theory,on the basis of in-depth investigation of the evolution of the geopolitical situation in the eastern part of the European Union and the historical evolution of the eastern neighboring countries policy,on the one hand,it analyzes the EaP as a dependent variable,focusing on the mode and dynamic mechanism of its development and change;On the other hand,taking the EaP as an independent variable,this paper analyzes the achievements and impacts in the process of its development and changes,reviews and reflects on its role,and systematically demonstrates its promotion mechanism and means,deep difficulties and future prospects.This paper holds that EU enlargement is a successful geopolitical strategy,and the EaP has a strong path dependence on the EU's enlargement,which can be regarded as a variety of enlargement,and also has profound geopolitical attributes.In essence,the EaP is a tool used by Europe and the United States to check and balance Russia,and it is a"flexible"way for EU to promote enlargement.Based on a comprehensive analysis of the EaP,this paper focuses on the deconstruction of the strategic considerations and interest demands of EU diplomacy,analyzes the EU's role in the game of big powers,and further understands the future development trend of EU's internal and external policy transformation and adjustment.