Regulatory reforms in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood countries are not as sluggish as often perceived. Rule enforcement is happening despite the presence of domestic veto players who favour the status quo, the lack of EU membership perspective and the presence of Russia as an alternative governance provider. Using Ukraine as a primary case study, this book examines why convergence with transnational market rules varies across different policy sectors within the Eastern neighbourhood countries. It analyzes the drivers of regulatory change and explores the conditions under which post-Soviet economies integrate with international markets. In doing so, it argues that the impetus for regulatory change in the Eastern neighbourhood lies in specific strategies of domestic empowerment applied by external actors. Furthermore, through the study of the impact of Western and Russian transnational actors, the book concludes that Russia’s presence does not necessarily hinder the integration of the EU’s Eastern neighbours with international markets. Instead, Russia both weakens and strengthens domestic support for convergence with transnational market rules in the region. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European/EU studies and international relations, especially in the areas of regulatory politics, transnational governance, public policy, and post-Soviet transitions.

Policy Transfer and Norm Circulation brings together various fields in the humanities and social sciences to propose a renewed analysis of policy transfer and norm circulation, by offering cross-regional case studies and providing both a comprehensive and innovative understanding of policy transfer. The book introduces a constructive interdisciplinary dialogue and comparative approach, highlighting the partial and fragmented understanding of policy transfer and the questions and challenges in the study of policy transfer in three parts. Firstly, notions of transfer and circulation, including law, (political) economy, sociology and history; secondly, a focus on European studies and the transfer of norms, both within and outside the EU; and finally, an examination within a broader IR context. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics/studies, international relations, public policy, economics and law, as well as practitioners dealing with regional integration.

The Routledge Handbook of EU-Russia Relations offers a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in relations between the EU and Russia provided by leading experts in the field. Coherently organised into seven parts, the book provides a structure through which EU-Russia relations can be studied in a comprehensive yet manageable fashion. It provides readers with the tools to deliver critical analysis of this sometimes volatile and polarising relationship, so new events and facts can be conceptualised in an objective and critical manner. Informed by high-quality academic research and key bilateral data/statistics, it further brings scope, balance and depth, with chapters contributed by a range of experts from the EU, Russia and beyond. Chapters deal with a wide range of policy areas and issues that are highly topical and fundamental to understanding the continuing development of EU-Russia relations, such as political and security relations, economic relations, social relations and regional and global governance. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Russia Relations aims to promote dialogue between the different research agendas in EU-Russia relations, as well as between Russian and Western scholars and, hopefully, also between civil societies. As such, it will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers, policymakers and journalists interested and working in the fields of Russian politics/studies, EU studies/politics, European politics/studies, post-Communist/post-Soviet politics and international relations. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Russia Relations is part of a mini-series Europe in the World Handbooks examining EU-regional relations established by Professor Wei Shen.

This book analyses why the Ukrainian state established asylum laws and policies in the thirty years since 1991, even though the number of asylum seekers was very low. International and non-governmental organisations transferred international asylum norms to Ukraine. Various state and non-state actors participated in this process, translating, spreading, and resisting those norms. In many cases, legislative adoption was driven by domestic politicians’ pursuit of recognition by international organisations, such as the European Union and the Council of Europe, and by their desire to meet conditionality requirements. NGOs sought to influence administrative practices, alternating between confrontational and conciliatory, formal and informal approaches, and often relying on personal contacts. Actors used and shifted between scales in order to transfer norms or resist transfer. In the process, they produced, renegotiated, and confirmed those scales. For instance, NGOs resorting to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent refoulement placed the European scale above the national scale. This book offers a new multi-actor and multi-scalar analysis of policy transfer.

The literature on the European Union influence’s in its Eastern neighbourhood has tended to focus on EU-level policies and prioritize EU-related variables. This book seeks to overcome this EU-centric approach by connecting EU policy transfer to the domestic and regional environment in which it unfolds. It looks at the way in which the EU seeks to influence domestic change in the post-Soviet countries participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy/Eastern Partnership and domestic receptivity to EU policies and templates. It seeks to disentangle the various dynamics behind domestic change (or lack thereof) in Eastern Partnership countries, including EU policy mechanisms, domestic elites’ preferences and strategies, regional interdependences and Russia’s policies. Based upon extensive empirical investigation on EU policies in four countries; Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – and in two pivotal policy sectors - the book provides systematic and nuanced understanding of complex forces at work in the policy transfer process. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of international relations, European studies, democratization studies, and East European Politics and area studies, particularly post-Soviet/Eurasian studies.

This comprehensive volume observes how, after 25 years of transition and uncertainty in the countries that constituted the former Soviet Union, their political geographies remain in a state of flux. The authors explore the fluid relationship between Russia, by far the dominant economic and military power in the region, and the other former republics. They also examine new developments towards economic blocs, such as membership in the European Union or the competing Eurasian Economic Union, as well as new security arrangements in the form of military cooperation and alliance structures. This book reflects the broad range of changes across this important world region by engaging in insightful analysis of current developments in Central Asia, Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus, and separatist regions. The authors explore new state alliances and the evolving cultural and geopolitical orientations of former Soviet citizens. Some chapters also examine the dynamics of wars that have occurred in the post-Soviet space, as well as how local political developments are reflected in electoral preferences and struggles over control of public spaces. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Eurasian Geography and Economics.

Despite growing scholarly interest in the EU’s flagship policy towards its Eastern and Southern neighbours, serious attempts at theory-building on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) have been largely absent from the academic debate. This book aims at contributing to fill this research gap in a three-fold manner: first and foremost it aims at theorizing the ENP as such, explaining the origins, development and effectiveness of this policy. Building on this effort, it also pursues the broader objective of addressing certain shortcomings in EU external relations theory, and even beyond, in International Relations theory. Finally, it aspires to provide new insights for European policy-makers. It is one of the first volumes to provide different theoretical perspectives on the ENP by revisiting and building bridges between mainstream and critical theories, stimulating academic and policy debates and thus setting a novel, less EU-centric research agenda. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU external relations, EU foreign policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy, and more broadly in European Union Politics and International Relations.

This book aspires to establish a dialogue among the studies of sustainable development, global environmental politics, comparative regionalism, and area studies of Eurasia. The chapters in this book reflect deep knowledge of the authors of the main trends in environmental politics at global, international, and national levels before the invasion in Ukraine in 2022. First, the book looks into the role and impact of international organizations such as the European Union (EU), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Arctic Council (AC,) and Global Forums on Climate Action on post-Communist states, but also the role of nation-states (e.g., Russia, Kazakhstan, and China). Second, the book explores relatively new international organizations, such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Eurasian Development Bank, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). How do the EAEU, EDB, and the SCO matter, if at all, in promoting an environmental agenda? How do the EU, EBRD, and the AC advance the environmental agenda across the post-Communist region? This book aspires to answer these questions and to shed more light on the challenges to sustainable development in post-Communist Europe, Central Asia, and Eurasia. With a new foreword and afterword, this book will appeal to students, scholars and researchers of political science, international relations, area-studies as well as practitioners and policymakers working in international organizations and dealing with challenges of sustainable development. The other chapters were originally published as a special issue of Problems of Post-Communism.

Russia's impact on EU policy transfer to the post-Soviet space has not been as negative as often perceived. EU policies have traveled to countries and issue areas, in which the dependence on Russia is high and Russian foreign policy is increasingly assertive. This book explores Russia's impact on the transfer of EU policies in the area of Justice, Liberty, and Security and energy policy - two policy areas in which countries in the EU's Eastern neighborhood are traditionally strongly bound to Russia. Focusing especially on Armenia and Georgia, it examines whether it is the structural condition of interdependence, the various institutional ties and similarities of neighboring countries with the EU and Russia, or their concrete foreign policy actions that have the greatest impact on domestic policy change in the region. The book also investigates how important these factors are in relation to domestic ones. It identifies conditions under which different degrees of EU policy transfer occur and the circumstances under which Russia exerts either supportive or constraining effects on this process. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of EU and European politics, international relations and comparative politics.

This important Handbook brings together preeminent international scholars, sharing their comparative and international perspectives on the topic. Their original contributions cover the key issues and questions around policy transfer, diffusion and circulation research. Altogether, chapters illuminate how rich and provocative the current debate on the interpretation of how public policies travels is and the vibrancy of the area’s research within the broad planet of public policy analysis.