Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has shifted the Black Sea region from the periphery to the center of Euro-Atlantic and global security. The Kremlin seeks to dismantle Ukraine’s sovereign statehood, and cutting off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea would be a major step towards that. Russia has imposed a blockade on Ukrainian …
The European Union’s (EU’s) foreign policy and identity as a global actor have been deeply embedded in the liberal internationalist policy paradigm (Jørgensen et al, Chapter 1 in this volume; Jørgensen et al, 2020). The principles and norms of liberal internationalism, such as free trade, mutual respect of sovereignty, collective security, multilateralism, rule of law, …
In October 2022, the EU established a military assistance mission in support to Ukrainian armed forces (EUMAM Ukraine). The decision to launch the mission runs contrary to what one would intuitively expect from the EU, considering member states’ traditional divisions on Russia, alternative training initiatives, Ukraine’s lacklustre position and the mission’s unconventional design. Despite the …