IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v63y2025i1p127-142.html

Geopolitical EU? The EU's Wartime Assistance to Ukraine

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabeth Johansson‐Nogués
  • Francesca Leso

Abstract

This article explores the European Union's (EU's) assistance to Ukraine through the lens of critical geopolitics with a view to ascertaining whether the EU has become more geopolitical in its thinking and actions towards Eastern Europe. Our findings point to a mixed picture. Whilst the EU ‘mindscape’ appears to have shifted in relation to Eastern Europe, Ukraine and itself as an actor in the region, it is less apparent that the EU's foreign and security policy action has become geopoliticised. The 2022 Russian invasion has certainly seen a step change from the hesitant and self‐conscious approach that characterised the EU's engagement with Eastern Europe prior to 2022. However, declarations such as that by the High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission (HRVP) around the ‘birth of geopolitical Europe’ appear to be somewhat premature, as there is limited evidence at this stage that the EU is willing to provide leadership on the geospatial (re)ordering of the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabeth Johansson‐Nogués & Francesca Leso, 2025. "Geopolitical EU? The EU's Wartime Assistance to Ukraine," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 127-142, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:127-142
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13613
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13613
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13613?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Gehring & Kevin Urbanski & Sebastian Oberthür, 2017. "The European Union as an Inadvertent Great Power: EU Actorness and the Ukraine Crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 727-743, July.
    2. Mai'a K. Davis Cross & Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski & Taras Kuzio, 2017. "Ukraine between a Constrained EU and Assertive Russia," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 103-120, January.
    3. Judith Kelley, 2006. "New Wine in Old Wineskins: Promoting Political Reforms through the New European Neighbourhood Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 29-55, March.
    4. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:45:y:2007:i::p:813-832 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Hiski Haukkala, 2016. "A Perfect Storm; Or What Went Wrong and What Went Right for the EU in Ukraine," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(4), pages 653-664, April.
    6. Hubert Zimmermann, 2007. "Realist Power Europe? The EU in the Negotiations about China's and Russia's WTO Accession," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 813-832, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jolyon Howorth, 2025. "European Defence and NATO: From Competition to Co‐operation to Replacement?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(S1), pages 156-168, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Gehring & Kevin Urbanski & Sebastian Oberthür, 2017. "The European Union as an Inadvertent Great Power: EU Actorness and the Ukraine Crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 727-743, July.
    2. Peter Burnell, 2008. "From Evaluating Democracy Assistance to Appraising Democracy Promotion," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(2), pages 414-434, June.
    3. Tanja A. Börzel, 2010. "The Transformative Power of Europe Reloaded - The Limits of External Europeanization," KFG Working Papers p0011, Free University Berlin.
    4. Sara Kahn-Nisser, 2017. "Channels of Influence: The EU and Delta Convergence of Core Labour Standards in the Eastern Neighbourhood," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 127-143, January.
    5. Meissner Katharina, 2023. "Caught up by Geopolitics: Sanctions and the EU’s Response to Russia’s War Against Ukraine," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 275-283, December.
    6. Elena A. KOROSTELEVA, 2013. "Evaluating the role of partnership in the European Neighbourhood Policy: the Eastern neighbourhood," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 4, pages 11-36, December.
    7. repec:jes:wpaper:y:2012:v:4:p:385-395 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Angelos Katsaris, 2016. "Europeanization through Policy Networks in the Southern Neighbourhood: Advancing Renewable Energy Rules in Morocco and Algeria," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 656-673, May.
    9. Manuela Moschella, 2007. "An International Political Economy Approach to the Neighbourhood Policy. The ENP from the Enlargement and the Mediterranean Perspectives," European Political Economy Review, European Political Economy Infrastructure Consortium, vol. 7(Summer), pages 156-180.
    10. Oleksiy KANDYUK, 2016. "Foreign Policy Of European Union: Eurasian Agenda," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 8(3), pages 348-363, October.
    11. Julia Langbein, 2011. "Organizing Regulatory Convergence Outside the EU. Setting Policy-Specific Conditionality and Building Domestic Capacities," KFG Working Papers p0033, Free University Berlin.
    12. Julia Langbein, 2014. "JCMS Special Issue 2014: Eastern Enlargement Ten Years On: Transcending the East-West Divide? Guest Editors: Rachel A. Epstein and Wade Jacoby," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 157-174, January.
    13. Rauh, Christian, 2025. "International recognition of European Union “actorness”: Language-based evidence from United Nations general debate speeches 1970–2020," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 51(5), pages 792-821.
    14. Aram TERZYAN, 2020. "Change or continuity? Exploring post-revolution state - building in Ukraine and Armenia," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 12(1), pages 20-41, May.
    15. Sally Khalifa Isaac, 2012. "Europe and the Arab Revolutions - From a Weak to a Proactive Response to a Changing Neighborhood," KFG Working Papers p0039, Free University Berlin.
    16. Nelli Babayan, 2016. "A Global Trend EU-style: Democracy Promotion in ‘Fragile’ and Conflict-Affected South Caucasus," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(2), pages 217-226, May.
    17. Andrei SCRINIC, 2014. "The Eastern Partnership As Part Of The Eu Foreign Policy: A Review Of Theoretical Approaches," EURINT, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 1, pages 219-230.
    18. Tanja A. Börzel, 2023. "European Integration and the War in Ukraine: Just Another Crisis?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(S1), pages 14-30, September.
    19. Antoniades, Andreas, 2009. "Social Europe and/or global Europe? Globalization and flexicurity as debates on the future of Europe," MPRA Paper 28871, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Thilo Bodenstein & Mark Furness, 2009. "Separating the Willing from the Able," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(3), pages 381-401, September.
    21. Karina Shyrokykh & Nea Solander, 2025. "Conditional Aid Under What Conditions? Exploring Consistency in Performance‐Based Aid Allocation," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(6), pages 1743-1763, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:127-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.