The EU and Russia: managing the new security environment in the wider Europe

Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 sent shock waves through Europe and exposed the inadequacies of the EU’s relationship with its most powerful neighbour, Russia. This paper focuses on the fundamental challenges facing the EU arising from the Ukraine conflict and
Russia’s more assertive foreign policy approach in general. We consider how Russia’s intervention in Ukraine affects Europe’s rules-based security environment, analyse Moscow’s policy in the EU-Russia neighbourhood and its implications for the EU’s own role in the region and examine how the EU and
its member states are addressing the challenges posed by Russia. Finally, we pose a crucial question: can the EU and NATO work together to provide incentives for Russia to accept a common approach aimed at institutionalising partnership and reviving cooperative security management, without making
concessions to Russian aggression? In other words, how do the European powers both ‘deter’ and ‘engage’ Putin’s Russia?