News

On the first anniversary of Russia’s full scale-war on Ukraine, project leader Anne Pintsch gave a talk to the public at the Fredagslunsj (Friday lunch) series at Kristiansand Public Library. In the talk, she looked back at one year of war, Russia’s previous aggression on Ukraine and replied to questions from the audience regarding future prospects.

Project Team Dr. Maryna Rabinovych and Dr. Anne Pintsch published an opinion piece “Europe must support a quick Ukraine’s victory” with Aftenposten, Norway’s largest printed newspaper. The text of the opinion piece was also republished at the website of the University of Agder.

The opinion piece argues that the European Union, its Member States and like-minded partners, such as Norway, shall support Ukraine’s quick victory for two intertwined reasons. First, trench war with little advancements from both sides and continuing occupation of around 16% of Ukrainian territory gives Putin hope. He may hope that democratic countries will be tired of supporting Ukraine, and Russia will eventually get some territorial advancements following the war. Ukraine’s quick victory, on the contrary, will signify a victory of democratic forces and give a strong impetus to European and Euro-Atlantic cooperation.

Dr. Anne Pintsch and Dr. Maryna Rabinovych are out with the piece “Geopolitical and Technocratic: EU International Actorness and Russia’s War Against Ukraine”, published with the “European Issues” (Foundation Robert Schuman).

The contribution explores EU’s pre-war and wartime policies vis-à-vis Ukraine and other Eastern Neighbourhood countries, aiming to delimit the essentials for the EU’s role in the region after the war. Using numerous policy- and sector-specific examples, the analysis stresses the importance for the EU to back its geopolitical aspirations with technocratic policy solutions in the Neighbourhood.

Dr. Maryna Rabinovych and Dr. Anne Pintsch are out with the article “Sustainable Development: A Common Denominator for the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Partnership”, published recently with the International Spectator: Italian Journal of International Affairs.

Using document analysis with a focus on region-level documents and the cases of Ukraine and Azerbaijan, the article demonstrates the EU’s tendency to shift from an emphasis on European integration and common values to the sustainable development concept. This tendency can be seen as the EU’s response to the challenge of the heterogeneity of the Eastern Partnership countries’ cultures, political regimes and foreign policy aspirations, persisting since the 2004 enlargement. With respect to this tendency, the article stresses the need to balance sustainable development, integration efforts and democratization in the Eastern Partnership countries amid increasing differentiation and geopolitical challenges in the region.

On 9 January 2023, Dr. Anne Pintsch and Dr. Maryna Rabinovych were honoured to give a keynote speech, titled “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Geopolitical Europe and the New World Order”. The annual Norwegian National Conference in Political Science was organized by the Department ofPolitical Science and Management of the University of Agder between 9 and 11 January 2023. The conference is an important venue for scholars from Norwegian universities, colleges and research institutes to discuss research results and ideas.

The Project Team’s keynote speech focused on the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, including the EU’s “geopolitical awakening” that was declared by the EU’s High Representative Josep Borrell soon after the invasion. The main argument was that, while the EU already did much to prevent the Kremlin from winning in Ukraine, it needs to do much more, if it seeks being a geopolitical power in a networked global order. This includes unprecedented sanctions against Russia, multi-faceted support for Ukraine and changes to the affected policies of the EU, such as countering energy dependency with Russia.

Yet, to be genuinely geopolitical, it is critical for the EU to identify its vulnerabilities and develop more autonomous and thought-through policies in the trade, technological, climate and many other sectors. Building a more geopolitical and more autonomous Union also inevitably involves reconsidering the policies towards and relations with other countries – be it allies or perceived sources of threats. It is beyond the doubt that elaborate economic, digital and climate policies and reliable coalitions will help Europe go through crises and withstand the rise of autocrats worldwide.

Yet, it was emphasized that all these new sector policies and changes in relations with specific countries and their groups are not enough for the EU to survive and help others in an increasingly dangerous world, where autocrats militarize everything: energy, space, food and human sufferings. The Project Team concluded with stressing that the EU shall use its aspired geopolitical power, strategic autonomy and resilience to bring the rules-based order back. This will, in turn, only be possible following the restoration of justice after the biggest and most destructive war in Europe since the World War II and the trial over the war criminals – processes, wherein Europe shall take a lead, whatever efforts and time it will take.

The one-hour speech was followed by a questions and answers session.

On 28-29 November 2022, Project Leader Dr. Anne Pintsch and Project Post-Doc Maryna Rabinovych participated in the seminar “Contemporary Ukraine and its Future”, organized by the Norwegian Network for Research on Ukraine (UKRAINETT). The event was hosted by the OsloMet University.

In terms of the seminar, Dr. Anne Pintsch presented the paper, titled “Great oaks from little acorns grow. How the dynamics of EU-Ukraine cooperation contributed to the EU’s reaction on full-scale war on Ukraine”, co-authored by the Project Team. Post-Doctoral Researcher Dr. Maryna Rabinovych talked about her paper “EU Security Cooperation with Third States: A New Momentum for Differentiated Integration”, co-authored with Hanna Shelest (Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”.

Except for paper presentations and discussions, the seminar served as a platform for debate about the future of Ukrainian Studies in Norway.

On 28 November 2022, Project Team Dr. Anne Pintsch and Dr. Maryna Rabinovych gave a guest lecture “EU, Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership in War and Post-War Times: Quo Vadis?” at the University of Oslo. The event was hosted at the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages.

The first part of the lecture focused on the presentation of the “Lowering the Bar?” project and an insight into the role of compliance negotiations in the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

In the second part, the talk zoomed in on the European Union’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Project Team highlighted, inter alia, the role of pre-war EU-Ukraine networks in the EU’s strong response to Russia’s aggression.

In the third part, the presenters elaborated on the challenges of shaping EU future policies to a highly heterogenous and conflict-prone Eastern Partnership region (i.e. Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus).

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session with many intellectually challenging questions from the audience.

A more detailed description of the event is available at the website of the University of Oslo.

On 28-29 October 2022, “Lowering the Bar” Project Team took part in the symposium “Ukraine on the way to EU membership”, organized at the University of Bergen (UiB).

The key themes of the Symposium included the implementation and the future of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement; perspectives on Ukraine’s EU membership application; approximation of laws on the way to European integration and experience of the EU integration – Eastern Enlargement of 2004. The Symposium brought together speakers both from academia and public institutions from the EU/EEA and Ukraine.

Project Team presented two co-authored project-related papers, namely “From the 2014 Annexation of Crimea to the 2022 Russian war on Ukraine: Path-Dependence and Socialization in the EU-Ukraine Relations between the Critical Junctures” and “Compliance Negotiations and the EU Association Relations with Third Countries. The Case of Ukraine”. Talks’ streaming to online audience and the facilitation of discussion was ensured by conference organizer Dr. Liliia Opprysk, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen.

On 4 November 2022, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt gave a speech on “Norwegian Foreign Policy in a New Time” at the UiA’s Lilletun lecture (Lilletunforelesningen). Project leader Anne Pintsch was invited to comment on the speech.

On 9 November 2022, project post-doc Maryna Rabinovych took part in the “Meet an Agder Researcher” initiative, whereby high school pupils and teachers can meet a researcher from the University of Agder and get insights into various topical themes. Maryna’s talk was also part of the outreach activities, conducted by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “Laboratories of Differentiated Integration” at the University of Agder.

Titled “Understanding Ukraine: War, International Politics and External Relations”, Maryna’s talk aimed to provide teachers of the Kristiansand Katedralskole Gimle with background knowledge about Ukrainian history and politics and discuss internal politics and foreign relations perspectives as to the current war. The event was attended by more than 30 teachers and followed by an intense discussion.