Teaching Comparative

A failure of European soft power?

A European think tank, co-chaired by Joschka Fischer, the former German foreign minister, asserts that Russian political power has overwhelmed European influence. Could the supply of Russian oil and gas to the West and the supply of Western cash to Russia have anything to do with this?

What assets does the EU have to counter Russian policy goals? What Russian policy-making assets counter those EU advantages? Would individual countries have more ability to challenge Russian policies? And how do these "contests" affect the politics within the European countries?

Iran Traynor, Europe editor of The Guardian (UK) reports:

Putin dictating agenda to EU, thinktank report says

"Europe has lost the plot in trying to cope with a resurgent Russia under President Vladimir Putin, who is dictating the agenda in his dealings with European capitals, according to a study published yesterday.

"The west's post-cold war policy of promoting democracy and westernisation in Russia has failed. 'That strategy is now in tatters,' said the 65-page report from the European Council on Foreign Relations. 'Today it is Moscow that sets the pace for EU-Russia relations. Russia [is] more powerful, less cooperative, and more intransigent. Russia's growing confidence has transformed the EU-Russia relationship.'

"As Moscow turns its back on the west and wields its UN security council veto to stymie western policy while holding Europe as its energy hostage, Brussels is flailing incoherently, the report found...

"The EU's economy is 15 times the size of Russia's and its population three times that of its neighbour, but Brussels finds itself consistently outwitted, the report said.

"The challenge posed by Mr Putin has come into sharp focus this year...

"There is scant agreement within the EU, the report found, between those who want to 'contain' Russia, and those, like the German Social Democrats with their preference for 'Ostpolitik', who seek to change Russia by integrating it in a web of 'interdependence' with the west.

"Mr Putin has gained the upper hand by a policy of divide and rule with the Europeans, bypassing Brussels, dealing with individual countries, and exploiting rifts between EU states. This 'systematic policy of coercive bilateralism' uses 'diplomatic pressure, trade embargos, transport blockades, renegotiation of gas or oil supply contracts. Moscow's readiness to use coercion in foreign policy has shifted the terms of the debate.'"

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Labels: EU, globalization, policy, politics, Russia

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:21 AM