Relations between the European Union and its neighbourhood : studying the case of the South Caucasus through eclecticism and pragmatism and different logics of action.

Abstract

This thesis studies complex and contradictory relations between the South Caucasus and the European Union (EU). The thesis covers three main periods, which are: the early relations in the 1990s, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership Programme (EaP). The thesis employs Europeanisation theory and uses rationalist-constructivist framework as a complementary framework. The conducted research shows that the complex relationship between the EU and the South Caucasus states cannot be explained through a purely constructivist or purely rationalist theoretical framework. Thus, material and social motives are discernible, and rationalism and constructivism are complementary in explaining the relations between the EU and the South Caucasus countries. Therefore, when approaching the dissemination of values and normative connotation of the EU's relations with partner countries from a theoretical point of view that this thesis offers, a rationalist perspective explains actors’ preferences towards maximising material utility and the calculation by EU policymakers as to which strategy is most likely to advance the material interests of the EU in a given situation. This argument needs to be supplemented with insights from constructivism, which emphasises the universal nature of the values of the EU, which are inherently linked to the internal dynamics of the EU itself, and manifests in the relations with neighbouring countries. However, the thesis illustrates that rational considerations primarily justify the stances of the South Caucasus countries towards the EU, which are related to Russia’s political and economic influence in the region.