JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ

EU’s privileged relationship with its neighbors under the ENP “…will build on mutual commitment to common values principally within the fields of the rule of law, good governance, the respect for human rights, including minority rights, the promotion of good neighbourly relations, and the principles of market economy and sustainable development”. Therefore, the correct option is E.

For some European countries such as Italy and Turkey, the end of the Cold War meant a decreasing strategic importance in the Western security architecture, while for others such as the neutral states of Europe including Finland, Austria and Sweden, the post-Cold War era made their neutrality mostly irrelevant in the absence of the opposing camp.

Partners in EU’s Neighborhood Policy: ten Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia) and six Eastern countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine). Therefore, the correct option is B.

The main goal of the EU neighborhood policy, creating “a ring of friendly states”, has become “a ring of fire” in the second half of 2010s. While other states, most notably Russia, did not view Brussels as a partner but a geopolitical competitor, the Arab Spring dealt a severe blow to EU efforts to export its values and norms to the Middle East and North Africa. These unfavorable events and developments in Eastern and Southern neighborhoods “… arguably altered the Union’s strategic environment significantly” (Pänke, 2019: 111). As Europe turns inwards, and is busy with putting its own house in order in the wake of the simultaneous crises it has faced recently, it is claimed that it is seriously threatened by its eastern neighbor (Russia) and its southern and southeastern neighborhood (ISIS terrorism and irregular migration). Therefore the EU has to take “traditional aspects of geopolitics and strategic thinking” (Nitoiu and Sus, 2019: 1) into consideration in its dealings with these challenges and threats. During the second half of the 2010s, in fact, traditional geopolitics seems to have influenced the EU policymakers’ foreign policy thinking despite the denials of any geopolitical interest by the EU itself as a normative and civilian power in its external relations. Therefore, the correct option is A.

The European experiment in shared sovereignty is unprepared for a global era characterized by rising nationalism, great power competition, and a weakened transatlantic link” (Belin and Reinert, 2019: PAGE?). Therefore there is a stark difference between the past conditions under which the EU was supposed to be a key geostrategic actor on the world scene, and the current picture in which the Union seems much weaker, unassertive and disunited, let alone a significant global player.

The EU was founded in the 1950’s by the original six member states which jointly constitute the “core” of Europe. Since then, the geopolitical space surrounding this core region (or the EU’s near abroad) has been extended by successive rings such as the new Central and Eastern European member states, the remaining EFTA members joining the European Economic Area which integrates them in the single market, future prospective members from Southeastern Europe, the ENP partners and peripheral non-ENP states or “neighbors of EU neighbors” that are mostly an arc of crisis and unsuited for EU accession. Thus “The Union establishes a hierarchical order via geopolitical modelling of different layers of influence and power” (Pänke, 2019: 107). To this end, the EU has developed two comprehensive and inter-linked policy frameworks entitled “enlargement” and “neighborhood” in order to shape subregional spaces.

The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) was first introduced in 2003 “Wider Europe” communication by the European Commission and then launched in 2004 as a response to the eastward and southward enlargements of 2004 and 2007. “The Policy was set as a framework to govern the EU’s relations with 16 of the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbours in order to achieve the closest possible political association and the greatest possible degree of economic integration”

Partners in EU’s Neighborhood Policy: ten Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia) and six Eastern countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine).

China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative, which was launched in 2013 under the new Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a geopolitically motivated endeavor to expand its influence and clout westward, and this policy is expected to have a strong impact on the EU and its neighborhood. It aims to build new trade corridors reaching to Africa and Europe, crossing Central Asia and the Indian Ocean, thereby establishing a Belt and Road circle of friends.

The unilateral withdrawal of the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, also called the Iranian nuclear deal, is not welcomed by the EU and its signatory members, who wish to remain committed to the deal.

Today, whileCentral and Eastern European countries are both
EU and NATO members, and the Balkan states
are either EU and NATO members or on their way
to join both organizations, the remaining nations -
Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus - appear the objects
of geopolitical rivalry between the EU and Russia.

Indeed the EU membership covers 28
of more than 40 European nations, while it still
continues to expand its influence well beyond the
European core, “…surrounded by a buffer zone
of a so-called ‘ring of friends’, beyond which lies
a threatening world” (Browning, 2018: 127).

The restoration of peace in Europe after long centuries
of conflict between European nations was the main
success of the 70 year-long European integration,
and due to this success, the EU was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.

The Copenhagen Criteria:
Political criteria: democracy, the rule of law,
human rights and respect for and protection
of minorities;

Economic criteria: the existence of a
functioning market economy as well as the
capacity to cope with competitive pressure
and market forces within the Union;

The adoption of the EU acquis: the ability
to take on the obligations of membership.

In the meantime, the Western
Balkan countries - Serbia, Montenegro, Albania
and Bosnia - joined the membership queue starting
from 2009 by officially applying for membership
successively. Of these, Serbia and Montenegro are in
the phase of accession negotiations with the Union
with a prospect of accession around 2025

Partners in EU’s Neighborhood Policy:
ten Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt,
Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,
Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia) and
six Eastern countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine).

For example, Central and Eastern European EU
members are desperate to receive further Chinese
investment, while has Italy become the first G-7
country and the only EU member to officially
participate in the Belt and Road project.

The unilateral withdrawal
of the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, also called the
Iranian nuclear deal, is not welcomed by the EU
and its signatory members, who wish to remain
committed to the deal.

China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative,
which was launched in 2013 under the new
Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a geopoliticallymotivated endeavor to expand its influence and clout westward, and this policy is expected to have
a strong impact on the EU and its neighborhood

Against this background, Europe is at the heart
of geopolitical power competition again in the face
of Russia’s assertive foreign policy under President
Putin. As one analyst (Grygiel, 2015: 505) put
it, “While Russia has returned to the European
chessboard with violent determination, Europe
is confused politically and incapable of a unified
response.” Both NATO enlargement and EU
neighborhood policies have dismayed the Russians,
and they responded to these developments by first
invading Georgia in 2008 and then annexing
Crimea and engaging in hybrid warfare against
Kiev in eastern Ukraine since 2014.