1st NORTIA residency: Irina Petrova - University of Kent

Submitted by Maastricht University on Thu, 05/03/2018 - 22:18

Congratulations to Irina Petrova  -  our first NORTIA Residency Bursary!

In spring 2018, NORTIA organised an open call for its "PhD Bursaries and Early-career Researcher Residencies" for research proposals in EU foreign policy in support of an extended residence (2-3 months) at a NORTIA partner institution. The residence can be used for field research, education/teaching skills training or supervisory opportunities. Residencies have been awarded on a competitive basis and assessed through a blind peer-review process. The residencies will assist in the creation of strong networks among early career scholars, open up opportunities for ongoing research collaboration, extend the interaction in the field of EU foreign policy studies, and facilitate the output of strong scholarly work in the field of EU foreign policy studies. A second call we be made in early 2019.

Irina Petrova (from KU Leuven – visiting University of Kent, 1 May – 1 July 2018): 

Contestation between the EU and Russia in their shared neighbourhood attracted academic attention a decade ago. It was then that it became obvious that out of a state in transition willing to learn from the EU, Russia evolved into an actor contesting the EU’s normsand policies domestically, as well as in the post-Soviet space. Overwhelmingly, during this decade academic literature portrayed the EU as a normative, postmodern actor, while Russia was largely framed as a realpolitik actor, exercising its foreign policy mainly through coercion. My doctoral project aims to provide a more nuanced and systematic approach to comparing the EU’s and Russia’s foreign policies in the region of shared neighbourhood.Building on Barnett and Duvall’s taxonomy of power (Barnett and Duvall 2005) and recent application of this approach by Casier (2017), the research takes a step further to empirically demonstrate how both the EU and Russia exercised various sorts of power in Ukraine and Belarus. In particular, the study looks at the EU’s and Russia’s compulsory power (case study of political regime promotion), institutional power (trade regime promotion), as well as structural and productive power (identity regime promotion) in a mid-term perspective (2009-2016). 

Reflecting on the relational component of power, I also argue that power is better understood when examined from the perspective of a foreign policy receiver (i.e. Ukraine and Belarus). The reception of various types of power is analysed based on a mixed-method research design combining process-tracing, content analysis and discourse analysis. The study draws on the broad range of primary sources in English and local languages: official documents and political statements, mass media and think tank reports, as well as political elite interviews. The findings indicate that the EU is mainly seen as an institutional power, while Russia’s perception as either compulsory or structural/productive power prevails. Contrary to what most literature suggests, Russia enjoys strong structural power in the region. The findings also demonstrate interdependence between different types of power by undermining and reinforcing each other. 

A research stay at the University of Kent supported by the NORTIA consortium will be an important contribution in completing my research project. It will allow me to fully focus on finishing the doctoral project and receive feedback from professors of the University of Kent. This is particularly essential for the chapter on structural and productive power as it takes a poststructuralist perspective, whereby Kent has special expertise. During the two months at the University of Kent I also plan to revise an MSCA application, submitted by Professor Elena Korosteleva and myself in 2017, which received a Seal of Excellence from the European Commission. The NORTIA residency therefore will be of a great help in completing one and commencing another chapter of my academic career and I am very grateful to our wonderful consortium for this support!