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Conclusion: Identities and Foreign Policies in the Other Europes

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Identities and Foreign Policies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

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Abstract

As we have seen in previous chapters, in the post-Soviet period all major identity projects in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus continued to engage with the idea of Europe in one way or another. For some ‘Europe’ was nothing more than a geographical area, and belonging to this Europe was simply a question of a country’s position on the map. Others interpreted ‘Europe’ as a normative community — a community of nations belonging to the same civilisation and sharing similar values. We have also investigated the ways in which divergent articulations of identity vis-à-vis ‘Europe’, coupled with contradictory views of Europe and the EU, led to rather different foreign policy preferences — both at the level of elite debates and at the level of public opinion. Let us now move to examining the implications of these factors for the foreign policies adopted by the authorities in Moscow, Minsk and Kyiv. This concluding chapter begins by comparing elite identity debates in all three states, and looking at their significance for the wider societies. The second part of the chapter goes on to discuss the links between contested identities and the foreign policy courses that were pursued by the three Slavic countries. Finally, the chapter offers some policy conclusions that, we hope, may help to develop the preconditions for a more constructive engagement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Glasgow, UK

    Stephen White (James Bryce Professor of Politics and Visiting Professor)

  2. Institute of Applied Politics, Moscow, Russia

    Stephen White (James Bryce Professor of Politics and Visiting Professor)

  3. School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, UK

    Valentina Feklyunina (Lecturer in Politics)

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© 2014 Stephen White and Valentina Feklyunina

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White, S., Feklyunina, V. (2014). Conclusion: Identities and Foreign Policies in the Other Europes. In: Identities and Foreign Policies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453112_8

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