Modernisation in EU-Russian Relations: Past, Present and Future

In adapting themselves to the post-Cold War period, the EU and Russia have been faced with a range of challenges in relation to their separate political and economic development and their respective identities. Not the least problematic of those challenges, however, has been in deciding the nature and shape of their relationship with each other. In 2010, the Partnership for Modernisation was formed and it is this modernising agenda, as seen through theoretical, historical, economic and political perspectives, that is the focus of this book.

Written as EU-Russia relations began their swift decline as a result of the Ukrainian crisis, this book examines the nature of these two actors’ relationship in respect of their Partnership for Modernisation. The contributing authors look at modernisation through different lenses applying varying methodologies, delivering: historical analysis, economic analysis, levels-of-analysis debate, which brings along transnational, transgovernmental and intergovernmental relations and interrelations between the EU and its member states, discourse analysis, new institutionalism as well as policy analysis. The authors each identify the importance of modernisation for Russia, demonstrating why, despite the current state of relations between Moscow and Brussels, modernisation remains relevant for EU-Russian relations. At the same time, the plurality of the chapters shows the complexity of the relationship that will have to be taken into account in order to overcome the current crisis and construct sustainable and mutually beneficial relations.