Introduction: competing conditionalities? Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus between the European Union and Russia

Abstract

Against the backdrop of recent and growing ‘conditionality assertiveness’ by both the EU and Russia vis-à-vis their neighbouring states, the present contribution critically reviews the existing state of the art on EU conditionality as well as on Russia's emerging conditional approaches within and beyond the Eurasian Economic Union. It proposes an alternative reading of conditionality, accounting for its perception and translation by the individual Eastern Partnership countries and applies it to individual case studies. Finally, it presents avenues for further research, arguing for the need to pay closer attention to different foreign policy means and their specific combinations, which constitute conditionality in its individual dimensions.