Download This PaperAnalysis of European Union (EU) Eastern Partnership on Eurasia Future
The 3rd Convention of European Studies 2014, University of Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta, Indonesia
37 Pages Posted: 20 Jun 2014 Last revised: 19 May 2016
Date Written: April 18, 2014
Abstract
Major global power has considered the future of Eurasia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, the region has fragmented and decayed. The successor state to the Soviet Union, Russia, is emerging from this period with renewed self-confidence. Yet Russia is also in an untenable geopolitical position. Unless Russia exerts itself to create a sphere of influence, the Russian Federation could itself fragment. For most of the second half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union controlled Eurasia, which was from central Germany to the Pacific, as far south as the Caucasus and the Hindu Kush. When the Soviet Union collapsed, its western frontier moved east nearly 1,000 miles, from the West German border to the Russian border with Belarus. Russian power has now retreated farther east than it has been in centuries. During the Cold War it had moved farther west than ever before. In the coming decades, Russian power will settle somewhere between those two lines. Therefore, after the Soviet Union dissolved at the end of the 20th century, foreign powers moved in to take advantage of Russia's economy, creating an era of chaos and poverty. Most significantly, Ukraine moved into an alignment with the United States and away from Russia, and this was a breaking point in Russian history. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine, from December 2004 to January 2005, was the moment when the post-Cold War world genuinely ended for Russia. The Russians saw the events in Ukraine as an attempt by the United States to draw Ukraine into NATO and thereby set the stage for Russian disintegration. Moreover, quite frankly, there was some truth to the Russian perception. To be concluded, if the West had succeeded in dominating Ukraine, Russia would have become indefensible. The southern border with Belarus, as well as the southwestern frontier of Russia, would have been wide open.
Keywords: global power, geopolitical, economy advantage, alignment, post cold war, disintegration
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