The EU and Russia: Prospects for Cohabitation in the contested region

This paper uses the Foucauldian premise of governmentality and the ‘analytics of government’ framework to understand how different modalities of power – of the EU and Russia’s Eurasia – relate, intersect and become inextricable in their exercise of governance over the contested Eastern Partnership region. By examining differing forms of power modalities, supported by first-hand evidence, this paper contends that both power-centres hitherto acted unilaterally, without acknowledging the interests of the other, and especially those of the third parties - Ukraine and the Eap region more broadly. This, instead of forging a more committed choice, pushed the neighbourhood in a situation of ‘no-choice’ – a security dilemma, which removes freedom and rationality of decision-making from the process, and generates resistance and instability in the longer term.