MACMILLAN The EU’s Neighbourhood Policy towards the South Caucasus: Expanding the European Security Community (The European Union in International Affairs)

This book addresses the potential and limitations of the European Union Neighbourhood Policy in sustaining the expansion of the European security community towards the South Caucasus. The Caucasus’ complex regional security dynamics are a hard test for regional security community building and showcase both the challenges of security provision through liberal reforms and integration and of the interaction between security communities and balance of power. The author begins by conceptualizing security community expansion and then considers the ENP through this perspective, before moving on to individual case studies on Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The book will appeal to both scholars and practitioners interested in European security, the European Union external action, and the post-Soviet space. Review “The South Caucasus is a critical test-case of policies aiming to develop a liberal security community in a troubled European periphery. In clear and accessible prose, Licínia Simão combines scholarly and practitioner insights with a host of interviews with the relevant actors to unpack the ambiguous progress of the European Union’s Neighbourhood Policy in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. With concision and balance Simão captures the unfolding contradictions between the European Union’s vision of itself as a security community, and an uncertain fit with South Caucasian security concerns, variable levels of local interest and a rival project in Russian power.” (Laurence Broers, SOAS University of London, UK) “Licinia Simão’s book offers a welcome and timely contribution to our understanding of the European Neighbourhood Policy towards the South Caucasus. Empirically rich and conceptually refreshing, it sheds light on the differing geostrategic aspirations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and corresponding conflict dynamics in a highly volatile region. By addressing the interaction and power of competing regional ordering mechanisms, and by systematically identifying contradictions of the ENP’s conceptualisation of regional security, it demonstrates lucidly the difficulties the EU faces in its ambition to expand (notions of) a European security community beyond its borders.” (Tobias Schumacher, College of Europe, Natolin, Poland) From the Back Cover This book addresses the potential and limitations of the European Union Neighbourhood Policy in sustaining the expansion of the European security community towards the South Caucasus. The Caucasus’ complex regional security dynamics are a hard test for regional security community building and showcase both the challenges of security provision through liberal reforms and integration and of the interaction between security communities and balance of power. The author begins by conceptualizing security community expansion and then considers the ENP through this perspective, before moving on to individual case studies on Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The book will appeal to both scholars and practitioners interested in European security, the European Union external action, and the post-Soviet space. About the Author Licínia Simão is Assistant Professor in International Relations at the University of Coimbra and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, Portugal. Her research interests include foreign policy analysis and security studies, European Union external action, and the former-Soviet space.