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Eastern European and South Caucasus Countries Between the EU's Eastern Partnership and Other (geo)Political Projects
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:1.00
Study Course Accepted:14.03.2024 09:46:53
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | SZF_060 | LQF level: | Level 7 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 4.00 | ECTS: | 6.00 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Politics | Target Audience: | Political Science | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Elizabete Elīna Vizgunova-Vikmane | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf rsu[pnkts]lv | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 10 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 20 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 13 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 26 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 46 | ||||||||
| Part-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 7 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 14 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 7 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 14 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 28 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | General knowledge of the theories and methods in the field of international relations, as well as basic knowledge on Russia, the United States and the European Union. | ||||||||
| Objective: | To provide students with knowledge, concepts and analytical tools that will enable understanding of the development of the six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine) in a broader regional context. To stimulate critical thinking on current development and future trajectories of the six countries and the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy, linking it to broader debates in political science such as democratisation and regionalism. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | Historical development of the Eastern Partnership | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | European Union’s Eastern Partnership policy: continuous search for strategy | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | The status of the neighbourhood: convoluted identities | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Between Russian and European integration projects | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries and China | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries, Turkey and the US | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Are the six countries a region? | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Reluctant EaP participants: Belarus and Armenia | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | EaP active reformers: Georgia and Moldova | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 10 | Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | The heavyweight: Ukraine | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 12 | Democratisation and its discontents | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 13 | Economic development of the six countries | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 14 | EU financial support and cooperation | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 15 | Traditional and non-traditional security challenges | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 16 | Simulation game | Classes | 5.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Topic Layout (Part-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | Historical development of the Eastern Partnership | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | European Union’s Eastern Partnership policy: continuous search for strategy | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | The status of the neighbourhood: convoluted identities | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Between Russian and European integration projects | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries and China | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries, Turkey and the US | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Are the six countries a region? | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Reluctant EaP participants: Belarus and Armenia | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | EaP active reformers: Georgia and Moldova | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 10 | Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | The heavyweight: Ukraine | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 12 | Democratisation and its discontents | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 13 | Economic development of the six countries | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 14 | EU financial support and cooperation | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 15 | Traditional and non-traditional security challenges | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 16 | Simulation game | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | Within the module, students will prepare for seminars, read recommended readings, prepare a report and a presentation. The objective of the seminars is to develop students’ ability to justify their point of view; to stimulate activity; to test their knowledge of the topic and the material. Report – to develop the ability to identify the main problem of the topic; to identify and evaluate alternative arguments and points of view; to present one’s own point of view, explaining and arguing why this point of view is more acceptable and superior to any other. The report must compare all possible alternatives, considering all their weaknesses and strengths. Another objective is to develop the skills to independently research situations and problems, evaluate them and develop solutions. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | Attendance – 10% Activity and preparedness during classes – 30% Presentation and report – 35% Final examination (essay) – 25% | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | Using in-depth knowledge gained in the study course on the development and operation of Eastern European and Southern Caucasus countries in the cooperation formats and organisations created by the EU and Russia, students will compare the domestic and foreign policy challenges of Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus considering domestic and foreign policy challenges among different centres of power. Students will compare and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the cooperation formats offered by the EU and Russia, as well as their mutual interaction. Students will compare the explanations of functionalism, neofunctionalism, transactionalism and federalism in the context of regional integration projects. | ||||||||
| Skills: | Working in a group, students will select, read and critically evaluate scientific literature, justify their choice, interpretation and analysis of literature about the historical development of Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus and its impact on cooperation with the EU to group members. Through individual and group work, students will identify in oral and written form, compare and evaluate alternative arguments and points of view, formulate, explain and justify their opinion on regional cooperation and integration projects based on different systems of values. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | Students will develop a report based on interdisciplinary scientific literature, analysing the opportunities and challenges of the countries of Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus in the framework of the EU Eastern Partnership Programme and Russia’s regional projects. Students will evaluate the interdisciplinary nature of complex problems and combine research results and methods from different fields to analyse complex problems in professional, academic and business environments. These competences will not be limited to the regional and global actors covered, but also to other regions and global actors, both in Eurasia and on other continents. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Visa literatūra ir angļu valodā un piemērota gan latviešu, gan angļu plūsmas studentiem | ||||||||
| 2 | Aliyev, Huseyn, “Assessing the European Union’s assistance to civil society in its Eastern Neighbourhood: Lessons from the South Caucasus”, Journal of contemporary European studies, 24:1 (2016), 42-60 | ||||||||
| 3 | Bláhová, Pavlína, “Nagorno-Karabakh: obstacles to the resolution of the frozen conflict”, Asia Europe Journal (2019) 17:69–85 | ||||||||
| 4 | Börzel, Tanja A., and Bidzina Lebanidze, ““The transformative power of Europe” beyond enlargement: the EU’s performance in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood”, East European Politics, 33:1 (2017), 17-35 | ||||||||
| 5 | Bruder, Jason, “The US and the New Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) Since 1991” in Managing Security Threats along the EU’s Eastern Flanks, 2020, 69-97 | ||||||||
| 6 | Całus, Kamil, Laure Delcour, Ildar Gazizullin, Tadeusz Iwański, Marta Jaroszewicz, and Kamil Klysiński, Interdependencies of Eastern Partnership Countries with the EU and Russia: Three Case Studies, EU-STRAT Working Paper No. 10, April 2018 | ||||||||
| 7 | Ciceo, Georgiana, “The Europeanization of Moldova’s direct democracy: assessing the new tools for citizen engagement in Policymaking”, Eastern European Journal of Regional Studies Vol. 6, Iss. 1 (2020) | ||||||||
| 8 | Delcour, Laure, and Kataryna Wolczuk, “Between the Eastern Partnership and the Eurasian Economic Union: Competing Region-building Projects in the ‘Common Neighbourhood’” in: Sieglinde Gstöhl, Simon Schunz, Theorizing the European Neighbourhood Policy, London: Routledge, 2017, 187-206 | ||||||||
| 9 | Dobrzhanska, Olena, and Oleh Pavliuk, “Political Identities of Ukrainian Society in the Context of the EU Eastern Partnership Policy”, Studia i Analizy Naukupolityce 1 (2020) | ||||||||
| 10 | “Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020: Reinforcing Resilience - an Eastern Partnership that delivers for all” | ||||||||
| 11 | Fawn, Rick, “The Price and Possibilities of Going East? The European Union and Wider Europe, the European Neighbourhood and the Eastern Partnership” in: Rick Fawn, ed., Managing Security Threats along the EU’s Eastern Flanks. New Security Challenges. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020). | ||||||||
| 12 | Fix, Liana, Andrea Gawrich, Kornely Kakachia and Alla Leukavets, “Out of the shadow? Georgia’s emerging strategies of engagement in the Eastern Partnership: between external governance and partnership cooperation”, Caucasus Survey, 7:1 (2019), 1-24 | ||||||||
| 13 | Frahm, Ole, Katharina Hoffmann, Dirk Lehmkuhl, “Turkey and the Eastern Partnership: Turkey’s Foreign Policy Towards its Post-Soviet Black Sea Neighbourhood”, EU-STRAT Working Paper No. 13, December 2018 (EU-STRAT) | ||||||||
| 14 | Ghazaryan, Narine and Laure Delcour, “From EU integration process to the Eurasian Economic Union: The case of Armenia”, in: Post-Soviet constitutions and challenges of regional integration, eds. R Petrov and P Van Elsuwege (Routledge 2018) | ||||||||
| 15 | Gotişan, Iurie, “Eastern Partnership and Moldova: recent trends,” International Issues & Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs Vol. XXVIII, No. 1–2 (2019), 94–112 | ||||||||
| 16 | “Joint Declaration of the Prague Eastern Partnership Summit”, Prague, (7 May 2009) | ||||||||
| 17 | Kaczmarski, Marcin, Jakub Jakóbowski, and Szymon Kardaś, “The effects of China’s economic expansion on Eastern Partnership countries”, EU-STRAT Working Paper No. 17, March 2019 | ||||||||
| 18 | Kakachia, Kornely, and Bidzina Lebanidze, Global and Diffuse Risks in the Eastern Partnership Countries: Potential Impacts on EU Security (2020), EU-LISTCO Working Paper No. 6 | ||||||||
| 19 | Korosteleva, Elena, “Eastern partnership and the Eurasian Union: bringing ‘the political’ back in the eastern region”, European Politics and Society, 17:sup1 (2016), 67-81 | ||||||||
| 20 | Makarychev, Andrey, Incomplete Hegemonies, Hybrid Neighbours: Identity games and policy tools in Eastern Partnership countries, CEPS Working Document, No 2018/02, February 2018 | ||||||||
| 21 | Muravska, Tatjana, and Alexandre Berlin, “Towards a New European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): What Benefits of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) for Shared Prosperity and Security?” in: Political and Legal Perspectives of the EU Eastern Partnership Policy, Springer, 2016 | ||||||||
| 22 | Petrova, Irina, and Laure Delcour, “From principle to practice? The resilience–local ownership nexus in the EU Eastern Partnership policy”, Contemporary Security Policy, 41:2 (2020), 336-360 | ||||||||
| 23 | Řiháčková Pachta, Věra, “Eastern Partnership: from the EaP summit to the debate on the new Multiannual Financial Framework”, Europeum Monitor, October 2018 | ||||||||
| 24 | Shyrokykh, Karina, “The Evolution of the Foreign Policy of Ukraine: External Actors and Domestic Factors”, Europe-Asia Studies, 70:5 (2018), 832-850 | ||||||||
| 25 | Socoliuc, Oana-Ramona, and Liviu-George Maha, “The Economic Dynamics of the Eastern Partnership Countries: Between Development Gaps and Internal Fragilities”, in: Resilience and the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, eds. Rouet G., Pascariu G., Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019 | ||||||||
| 26 | Tsybulenko, Evhen, and Sergey Pakhomenko, “The Ukrainian Crisis as a Challenge for the Eastern Partnership” in: Political and Legal Perspectives of the EU Eastern Partnership Policy, eds. Kerikmäe, T., Chochia, A., Springer, 2016 | ||||||||
| 27 | van Gils, Eske, “Differentiation through bargaining power in EU–Azerbaijan relations: Baku as a tough negotiator”, East European Politics, 33:3 (2017), 388-405 | ||||||||
| 28 | Vieira, Alena, and Syuzanna Vasilyan, “Armenia and Belarus: caught between the EU's and Russia's conditionalities?”, European Politics and Society, 19:4 (2018), 471-489 | ||||||||
| 29 | Wivel, Anders, “Living on the edge: Georgian foreign policy between the West and the rest,” Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, 1:1 (2016), 92-109 | ||||||||
| 30 | Zajaczkowski, Małgorzata, "Regional cooperation within the Eastern Partnership", European Integration Studies 1:138-147 | ||||||||
| Additional Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Frear, Matthew, Klaudijus Maniokas, Laurynas Jonavičius and Ion Tabarta, Report on complementary and alternative modes of engagement with the EaP countries, EU-STRAT Report No. 5, July 2018 | ||||||||
| 2 | Stanislav Secrieru and Sinikukka Saari, eds, The Eastern Partnership a Decade On: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead, Chaillot Paper No. 153 (Paris: EU ISS, 2019) | ||||||||
