The European Security System Revisited: EU-Russia relations

The place of the successor state to the USSR, the Russian Federation, in the European security system remains uncertain. This article looks into how the EU is dealing with its relations to Russia from a security perspective. Firstly, this article addresses that trust is the keyword in any security community and that this is difficult to come by as the EU and Russia seem to living in different worlds in terms of their role as a security actor. Secondly, the EU's position towards Russia is characterised by a set of enduring dilemma's. Reconciling these is not straightforward. However, thirdly, there are clear signs of the opening of a 'window of opportunity' in EU-Russia relations. Lastly, this article addresses how this opportunity could be used and which strategy of engaging the Russian Federation should be followed to arrive at a lasting post-Cold War security order in Europe. A mix of pragmatics and norm-promotion from a coherent EU, so is argued here, can bring this closer.