GEO-POWER-EU Blog: “Paradigm Shift: How the Eastern Partnership Chooses Camouflage Over a Tie”

GEO-POWER-EU Blog: “Paradigm Shift: How the Eastern Partnership Chooses Camouflage Over a Tie”

Associate Professor Sergii Glebov of Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University, a GEO-POWER-EU consortsium member and researcher, has published a new blog article titled “Paradigm Shift: How the Eastern Partnership Chooses Camouflage Instead of a Tie.”

The article draws on a qualitative analysis of interviews conducted by GEO-POWER-EU partner institutions, focusing on elite perceptions of EU enlargement policy and the Eastern Partnership. It argues that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered a process of securitisation, which changed not the initiative’s formal mandate but its place within the European Union’s wider security policy. As a result, author highlights that dual architecture has emerged: the Eastern Partnership continues to serve democratic transformation, institutional resilience, cybersecurity and the countering of hybrid threats, while military support is delivered through separate Common Security and Defence Policy instruments, including the European Peace Facility, the EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine, and bilateral security agreements.

Read the article in English (here) and in Ukrainian here.

*Featured image: ERR