Description
From the Editors:
Preparing a special issue on such a technical issue as the Eastern Partnership is always a challenge from the editorial point of view. The European Union’s policy towards the East is one that is never easily explained nor well understood among Europeans and their Eastern neighbours alike. As James Nixey points out in his essay, less than one per cent of Europeans has ever even heard of it. Certainly readers of this magazine have a good sense of what the Eastern Partnership is and how much has it changed (or not) in this region since it was launched in 2009. And that is why the milestone of the Eastern Partnership turning ten should be an opportunity to not only celebrate but also reflect on what has been achieved and how this policy can be shaped for the future. As you will read in the following pages, our authors have very different views of the Eastern Partnership. Arguably, however, they all agree that there is still plenty of work to do if the Eastern Partnership is to truly transform Eastern Europe.
Another transformative event that we are recognising in this issue is the 30-year anniversary of the fall of communism in Central Europe, specifically in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and East Germany. Our authors look at whether the promises of the transformation have been fulfilled for the societies that dreamed of a new future, what the memory of the year 1989 means today and, in some ways, why it generates social divisions. We recognise that these two anniversaries – together with the anniversaries of NATO and EU membership, 15 and 20 respectively – are a part of the wider context of a changing Europe in a changing world.
In the end, these anniversaries encourage us to look back and answer the question as to what have we learnt over these last 10, 20 or 30 years and how these lessons can help us shape this region by not repeating the same mistakes in order to deliver a better future for the next generation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
10 Years of Eastern Partnership
Persisting towards a Europe without dividing lines
Carl Bildt and Radosław Sikorski
Resetting the Eastern Partnership
Mariusz Maszkiewicz
The Eastern Partnership. Much accomplished, more to be done
Gabriele Bonafede
Multiplying civil society’s voice in the Eastern Partnership, a challenging task
Dovilė Šukytė
The Eastern Partnership at 10. What is there to celebrate?
James Nixey
Eastern Partnership, Past, Present and Future – Expert Survey
Eastern Partnership Partial progress
Anders Åslund
Eastern Europe intrigue
Joanna Hosa
Eastern Partnership at 10. Rhetoric, resources and Russia
Balázs Jarábik
The Eastern Partnership project in Ukraine and Belarus
David R. Marples
Lessons learnt from the Eastern Partnership
Gwendolyn Sasse
We have an obligation and moral duty towards our partners in the East
Interview with Jacek Sutryk
Towards a new European Ostpolitik
Iris Kempe
OPINION & ANALYSIS
When bridges turn out to be walls
Mykola Riabchuk
Contemporary Russia’s power vertical. Clans controlled by the Kremlin
Vakhtang Maisaia
Gagauzia. Geopolitics and identity
Rusif Huseynov
STORIES AND IDEAS
Rail Baltica strives to stay on track
Linas Jegelevicius
ART, CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Eastern Europe’s last tango. A journey through the interwar musical scene
Juliette Bretan
1989: A YEAR OF REVOLUTION AND CHANGE
The poverty of utopia revisited
Vladimir Tismaneanu and Jordan Luber
The circle of hope. Samizdat, tamizdat and radio
Eugeniusz Smolar
The Polish Round Table. A bird’s-eye view
Paulina Codogni
The bodies of the Velvet revolution. Remembering 1989 in the Czech Republic
Čeněk Pýcha and Václav Sixta
We must not forget the values we fought for in 1989
Interview with Markus Meckel
No bloody revolution
János Széky
Beyond nostalgia
Eugen Stancu
Bulgaria’s taboo
Radosveta Vassileva
The curse of perestroika
Anastasia Sergeeva
EASTERN CAFÉ
Vladimir Putin. What’s left to say?
Adam Reichardt
Accidental borders and blurred identities
Krzysztof Strachota
The taste of evil
Małgorzata Nocuń
The unheard voices of war
Zbigniew Rokita
