EU’s international role as a normative power can be questioned as the current foreign policy of the Eastern Partnership implies a limit to the union’s ability to democratize. An alignment with EU norms is often seen through a dichotomy of compliance or non-compliance, overlooking other forms of resistance stemming from a nexus of international compliance pressure, and defiance pressure from hybrid regime structures. This applies to Georgia, a pro-EU country in the Eastern Partnership, committed to EU norms while maintaining a skewed playing field in favor of incumbents. Through the application of a theoretical framework developed in memory studies, a range of rhetorical adaptation strategies employed by the ruling party regarding electoral reforms delineates a norm navigation. A qualitative content analysis of statements and events relating to the long-contested electoral system during 2015-2019 shows a variation of strategies used, pointing in a direction of increased pressure to align with prescribed EU norms. Whether EU or domestic political forces can be credited is difficult to determine, yet the nuances of norm resistance are important to analytically separate from overarching labels, as states’ rhetorical commitments need a critical perspective to better understand the limits to EU’s normative power in the Eastern Partnership.

This master’s thesis studies the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy in the Eastern Partnership before and after the EU Global Strategy (EUGS) and investigates whether or not there has been a policy shift towards the paradigm of resilience. Previous research disagrees on the implications of the EUGS and I argue that more empirical research on the matter is needed. The purpose of this thesis is thus to empirically investigate whether or not a shift in EU foreign policy towards a paradigm of resilience has indeed taken place in practice after the launch of the EUGS. Two sources of data are used in the study: the first and principal are the annual action programmes for the Eastern Partnership used by the EU for planning and delivering of external assistance; the second is a set of semi-structured elite interviews conducted with respondents representing the Eastern Partnership and the EU respectively. The results are mixed, showing a slight trend towards resilience-building but no ground-breaking paradigm shift has occurred. I argue that the resilience-building focus and principled pragmatism approach presented by the EUGS rather should be seen as an attempt by the EU to be honest with the foreign policy it is already conducting.

After two waves of the eastern enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007, its territory reached borders of the former Soviet republics. The EU started immediately building up the business ties with these countries. To be able to cover its business activities with the common approach, the EU formulated the European neighbourhood policy. Within ENP structure was separated an eastern dimension based on the Polish-Swedish initiative called Eastern Partnership. The initiative includes both bilateral and multilateral dimension of the EU's cooperation with partner countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The objective of the thesis is to investigate the development of relations between the European Union and Russia as a background of the emerging and developing EU's Eastern Partnership initiative. The aim is to analyze how the process of implementation of the Eastern Partnership developed, to what extent did the project stakeholders promoted their objectives and identify factors limiting the smooth implementation progress of the initiative objectives. Finally, the paper also focuses on the definition of Russian attitudes to the Eastern Partnership, reveals the factors and circumstances that view Russia in the context of the shapers, and explores how this view changed over time.

This thesis deals with the Visegrad Group (V4) as on of the cooperating coalitions in the European Union (EU). Then, a deeper analysis of one common topic of V4 in EU is provided - analysis of V4 activities in the framework of Eastern Partnership. Therefore the aim of the thesis is to analyse concrete actions of V4 within the policy of Eastern Partnership and choose those that contribute the most to the development of Eastern Partnership.

Tatev Derzyan (41794665) The Effectiveness of Erasmus+ and UGRAD Soft Power on Armenia during Hard Times (Nagorno-Karabakh War 2020) Abstract The thesis focuses on soft power and public diplomacy through exchange study programs of the European Union and the United States. Precisely, the thesis studies the influence of the educational exchange programs (Erasmus+ and UGRAD) on the Armenian exchange students in the scope of soft power. After establishing the influence of the exchange programs on the formation of the perceptions about the host countries, the thesis further focuses on the sustainability of the perception taking into consideration the Nagorno-Karabakh Second war which is a 'critical juncture' as it was a dramatic event in the life of the Armenian youth and could have influenced their views of the EU and the US. It is important to note that the academic literature on the exchange students' perceptions does not provide any studies through the lenses of the political events in the participants' home country. Thirty-nine semi-structured interviews have been conducted among the Erasmus+ and UGRAD participants from Armenia alongside the content analysis of the documents that the EU and the US released during the Nagorno-Karabakh Second war in order to understand what was the politics of the host...

This study attempts to analyze the evolution of the ENP in Southern Caucasus during post- Vilnius era. With contributions of the recent history, it aims to find out how these evolving policies affected the region from the competing theories perspective. It's seeking an answer to whether or not "initially neoliberal" strategy of ENP is designed to transform the region into a space with stability. While doing this, effectiveness of the ENP and multidirectional contributions it brought to the region is discussed. Neorealist and neoliberalist assumptions made for assessing the ENP's practices in the region. The thesis is methodologically supported with Congruence Analysis, which qualitatively enables us to observe theoretical developments based on multiple cases. Drawing on the main challenges to ENP's initial strategy, main hypotesis argue that neorealist assumptions are prevailing over neoliberalist assumptions, which can be shown as an outcome of the ENP's evolving policies in post- Vilnius era.

This diploma thesis deals with the relations between European Union and Republic of Moldova. It presents the EU as a unique entity within European territory, which influences its neighbourhood through "soft power", i. e. through peaceful means. Although such means are not binding and legally enforceable, they have certain impact on countries concerned. The thesis aims at examining to what extent the Republic of Moldova is influenced by these means. A special attention is given to transmission of those values and norms, which are the most important for EU (democracy, rule of law, human rights protection, etc.). The issue is seen from a social constructivist perspective.

After 12 years of isolation, the relations between Brussels and Minsk have been thawing starting in the last year. One of the components of the policy of re-engagement is the new initiative adopted by the EU called Eastern Partnership (EaP). This thesis sought to answer following question: what were the main reasons for the change in the EU policy towards Belarus after 2008? In order to answer the research question I formulated two hypotheses. The first hypothesis argues that while the EU has acted according to the normative power expectations up until 2008, after that date a more pragmatic approach in the foreign policy has been at work. The second hypothesis explains this change by the increasing influence of Eastern European countries in realm of decision-making processes within the EU, which resulted in a reformed EU foreign policy towards Belarus.These hypotheses are tested in a qualitative case study of the launching of the Eastern Partnership initiative, seen as the most important instrument that defines the new policy of EU. I will focus on the process of decision–making in regards to the adoption of the new initiative towards the Eastern European countries, using the rational actor model and the theory of formal leadership. The results of the paper point out that the main reason for changing the EU foreign policy towards Belarus were connected to pragmatic interests in the economic and energy areas, which weakened the EU normative claims. However, EU values are still counted as political conditionality has recently re-entered the agenda. Thus, the current foreign policy is two-fold: based on rational model of acting and normative power. Moreover, the EaP is the result of the strengthened position of Eastern European countries in terms of the power hierarchy among EU members, with Poland, and the Baltic States playing an increasingly larger role.

Les États du Partenariat oriental (Ukraine, Moldavie, Biélorussie, Géorgie, Arménie, Azerbaïdjan) ainsi que les territoires séparatistesqui s’y trouvent (Transnistrie, République du Donbas, Crimée, Abkhazie, Ossétie du Sud, Haut-Karabakh) doivent déterminer leurappartenance à un ensemble géopolitique afin d’assurer leur prospérité mais aussi leur sécurité. Les options qui se présentent à euxpeuvent se résumer à une intégration au sein de l’Union européenne, de l’Union (Économique) Eurasiatique ou à un partenariat avec la Chine, et ce en raison de leur difficultés à survivre en tant que pays non-alignés, et des pressions exercées pour Bruxelles et parMoscou. La raison de ces pressions repose sur la souhait d’émergence de l’Union européenne en tant que puissance géopolitique mondiale, poussée notamment par les États-Unis pour contrebalancer l’influence de la Russie, et par le Kremlin qui souhaite conserver son influence dans ce qu’il considère encore comme sa zone d’influence légitime” plus de 25 ans après la chute de l’Union soviétique. Cette thèse analyse les tendance intra-européennes, avec l’approche normalisatrice des pays d’Europe de l’Ouest, qui cherchent un compromis avec la Russie, et ceux d’Europe de l’Est, qui voient dans les Institutions européennes un moyen de s’affirmer comme puissances régionale. Avec l’avènement du projet de Partenariat oriental lancé par la Pologne et la Suède en 2008, l’UE incarne ces deux tendances, parfois contradictoires, à travers la mise en place de ses stratégies d’influence - son soft power - sur le terrain. Une influence mis à mal par les membres de l’EaP qui détournent abondamment les fonds en provenance de l’UE en raison de la corruption qui règne au sein des institutions nationales. La Russie tente pour sa part de retrouver son influence mais en usant d’une approche plus musclée, parfois même relevant du domaine militaire - son hard power - comme le montrent l’annexion de la Crimée et la mise en place des Peacekeepers dans le Caucase du Sud. Alors que l’Union européenne peine à exercer son influence dans un contexte de crise économique post-2008, la Russie semble pour sa part disposer de nouveaux moyens pour accroitre son influence : la guerre hybride, l’instrumentalisation des réfugiés qui affluent aux portes de l’Espace Schengen, et l’Union Economique Eurasiatique. / The states of the Eastern Partnership (Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) and the separatist territories therein (Transnistria, Republic of Donbas, Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh) have to determine their membership in a geopolitical entity to ensure their prosperity and safety. Due to the difficulties to survive as non-aligned countries and pressures fromBrussels and Moscow, all of them either have to join the European Union, the Eurasian (Economic) Union or to establish an exclusivepartnership with China in the upcoming years.Pressure from the EU and Russia is based on the desire of the EU to emerge as a global geopolitical power, particularly pushed by theUnited States to counterbalance the influence of Russia, and the will of the Kremlin to retain its influence in what is presented in theRussian media as the “legitimate sphere of influence”, even more than 25 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.The PhD dissertation analyzes the political divergences between EU member states, with the “normalizing approach” of WesternEuropean countries that seek a compromise with Russia, and those from Eastern Europe currently trying to use the European institutionsas a means to become regional powers.The Eastern Partnership launched by Poland and Sweden in 2008 embodies these two, sometimes contradictory tendencies through theimplementation of EU’s strategies of influence - the EU’s soft power - in post-Soviet space. Nonetheless, those strategies are oftenundermined by members of the EaP, which abundantly divert funds from the EU, because of the corruption of local institutions. At thesame time, Russia is also trying to regain its influence, sometimes even by using military means - the so called Russian hard power - asshown by the annexation of the Crimea and the establishment of peacekeeping missions in South Caucasus.While the European Union hardly exerts its influence in a post-2008 economic crisis context, Russia seems to have developed new waysto weaken its opponents. Hybrid warfare, weaponizing of refugees, pushed by massive bombings in Syria, and the establishment of theEurasian Economic Union are under the most efficient ways to weaken the EU and NATO so far.

La Politique européenne de voisinage (PEV) a été conçue pour promouvoir la prospérité, la stabilité et la sécurité dans les régions voisines de l'UE. L'analyse de cette politique dans le cadre du développement des relations entre l'Ukraine et l'UE, ainsi que dans le contexte de l'évolution d'une dynamique intra-régionale du Partenariat oriental, a conduit à l'identification d'une série de lacunes de nature différente, concernant à la fois les failles institutionnelles de la PEV et les incertitudes pesant sur ses perspectives finales vis-à-vis de l'Ukraine. En outre, la PEV a montré la limite de ses capacités à faire face aux défis sécuritaires lors de la crise en Crimée. Elle a également démontré les limites de sa stratégie géopolitique dans le cadre des relations entre la Russie, l'Ukraine et l'UE, de même qu'elle a révélé son incapacité à prévenir les risques potentiels qu'entraînerait l'Accord d'association Ukraine-UE pour l'Ukraine. / The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was originally designed to promote prosperity, stability and security in the European Union's neighbouring regions. The analysis of this policy within the framework of the relations between Ukraine and the EU and in the context of the evolution of the intraregional dynamics of the Eastern Partnership and of the external policy of the Union did however reveal a number of inherent flaws. In addition to the policy's deficiencies relating to both institutional failings and to the uncertainty regarding the final perspective of this process for Ukraine, the ENP also turned out to be insufficient when faced with the security challenges of the Crimean Crisis. It has demonstrated its limitations concerning the EU's geopolitical strategy within the framework of the relations between Russia, Ukraine and the EU and was shown to be unable to prevent potential risks arising from the European Union's Association Agreement with Ukraine.