The Politics of Flexibility
Exploring the Contested Statehood-EU Actorness Nexus in Georgia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3157397 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Madalina Dobrescu (0000-0001-5898-6237, European University Institute, corresponding author), Tobias Schumacher (0000-0002-9776-8686, European Neighbourhood Policy Chair, College of Europe Natolin, Warsaw, Poland) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 407-427 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geopolitics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14650045.2018.1552944 |
| OpenAlex | W2902995354 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 29 |
This article examines whether contested statehood represents a hindering condition for EU actorness in Georgia, a country where the EU has had ample opportunities to engage with contested territories. It focuses on EU engagement in Georgia in three policy areas – conflict management, migration and mobility, and trade – where the implications of divergent conceptions of sovereignty, legitimate authority and territoriality are most salient. The article argues that the EU has gone to great lengths in adjusting its frameworks and their practical implementation to accommodate Georgia’s ‘problematic sovereignty’ by adopting a flexible approach: conflict management policies explicitly include the unrecognised territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia; migration and mobility instruments omit any reference to Georgia’s contested statehood, implying the two entities’ default inclusion in visa liberalisation; and trade explicitly excludes them from the DCFTA, unless the Georgian government can ensure full enforcement in these territories. Regardless of the EU’s attempt at flexibility, the irreconcilable interests of the conflict parties, together with the EU’s privileging of international legal recognition, has resulted in a fractured record of EU actorness: strong actorness towards the 80% of Tbilisi-controlled territory, and low actorness towards the two unrecognised entities
Economics · Enforcement · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Territorial integrity · Global Socioeconomic and Political Dynamics · Healthcare, Law, Governance, and Management Studies · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics
Abkhazia’s Geopolitical Roles in the Russia – European Union – Georgia Triangle
Performing the (Contested) State
Political conditionality as an EU foreign policy and crisis management tool. The case of EU wartime political conditionality vis-à-vis Ukraine
The EU and its Neighbourhood
The EU and Contested Statehood in its Near Abroad
Political Geography and Political Science
Introduction
The Europeanisation of Contested Statehood
Unrecognized States in the International System
The European Union as a Global Actor
Contested States in World Politics
Problematic Sovereignty
Migration and Mobility in the European Union
Problematic sovereignty
Dynamics of de facto statehood
The unrecognized politics of de facto states in the post-Soviet space
Recognising politics in unrecognised states
The European Neighbourhood Policy and Conflict Management
Inside the post-Soviet de facto states
With a little help from Russia? The European Union and visa liberalization with post-Soviet states
Moral power’ as objectification of the ‘civilian’/‘normative’ ‘EUlogy’
Europeanisation, Sovereignty and Contested States
Living with Non-recognition
The view from Abkhazia of South Ossetia ablaze
Explaining Euro-Paralysis
The External Role of the European Community
The Capability‐Expectations Gap, or Conceptualizing Europe's International Role
Still Punching below Its Weight? Coherence and Effectiveness in European Union Foreign Policy
Whose Rule, Whose Law? Contested Statehood, External Leverage and the European Union's Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo
Fake, partial and imposed compliance
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |