1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910962196103321

Autore

Filipova Rumena

Titolo

Constructing the Limits of Europe : Identity and Foreign Policy in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia since 1989 / / Rumena Filipova, Andreas Umland, Harald Wydra, Gergana Yankova-Dimova

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Hannover, : ibidem, 2022

ISBN

3-8382-7649-3

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (497 pages)

Collana

Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society ; 244

Disciplina

327.4

Soggetti

Außenpolitik

Bulgaria

Bulgarien

Foreign Policy

Poland

Polen

Russia

Russland

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Foreword -- 1 Central and Eastern Europe after the1989 Revolution. Diverging Identities in a Reunifying Era -- 2 Are the Social Sciences Indeed 'Sciences'? Towards a Middle-Ground Methodological Perspective -- 3 Shades of Affinity. An Interactive Constructivist Theory of Self and Other in Bordering Belongingness -- 4 The Interactive Constructivist Theory ofSelf &amp -- Other and IR Debates. Refinement, Dialogue and Challenge -- 5 A European Trailblazer. The Thick Europeanisation of Polish Foreign Policy -- 6 Neither In, Nor Out. The Ambivalent Europeanisation of Bulgarian Foreign Policy -- 7 Europe's Outlier. The Thin Europeanisation of Russian Foreign Policy -- 8 Three Limits of Europe. Poland, Bulgaria and Russia in Comparative Perspective -- Epilogue. Europe Beyond the 30-year Limit -- List of Abbreviations -- Bibliography.



Sommario/riassunto

This comparative study harks back to the revolutionary year of 1989 and asks two critical questions about the resulting reconfiguration of Europe in the aftermath of the collapse of communism: Why did Central and East European states display such divergent outcomes of their socio-political transitions? Why did three of those states—Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia—differ so starkly in terms of the pace and extent of their integration into Europe?  Rumena Filipova argues that Poland’s, Bulgaria’s, and Russia’s dominating conceptions of national identity have principally shaped these countries’ foreign policy behavior after 1989. Such an explanation of these three nations’ diverging degrees of Europeanization stands in contrast to institutionalist-rationalist, interest-based accounts of democratic transition and international integration in post-communist Europe. She thereby makes a case for the need to include ideational factors into the study of International Relations and demonstrates that identities are not easily malleable and may not be as fluid as often assumed. She proposes a theoretical “middle-ground” argument that calls for “qualified post-positivism” as an integrated perspective that combines positivist and post-positivist orientations in the study of IR.