Publication details
European Union as a conflict management actor in South Caucasus: Is the war in Ukraine the critical juncture for the EU´s future role?
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | The conference paper represents a theory-guided case study, which is focused on the role of the EU as a crisis management actor in South Caucasus, more specifically in Georgia. Theoretically it is based on the premises of new institutionalism, more specifically, historical institutionalism (HI). Historical institutionalism, similarly as the rational choice institutionalism, pays attention to the way in which the actors choose and design the institutions (within the logic of the transaction-cost approach), but HI also focuses more on how the institutions change or persist over time. In the paper we thus primarily apply the premises of historic institutionalism, we work with the concepts of path dependence, critical juncture, continuity and change, more specifically the incremental changes on one side, that take place within the logic of the path-dependency, and radical change/reform, which may be triggered by the influence of an external crisis. In case of our research such external crisis is represented by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We focus here more particularly on the EU´s performance as the security actor in South Caucasus via the EUMM Georgia civilian mission that was deployed to fulfill the tasks connected with crisis management. The tasks and the functioning of the mission have been gradually adapted to the requirements of the EU comprehensive and integrated approach to external conflicts and crises, with strong elements of continuity. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent outbreak of current war represent an important external event that shook the security situation not only in South Caucasus but in the whole post-soviet region, on the European continent and to a large extent also in the international dimension. The question thus arises, whether current period (after February 2022) represents the so-called critical juncture with the potential to bring radical changes and shifts in the existing EU policy as a crisis management actor. |
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