Eurasia: The Rivalry Of Global Integration Projects

• Author: Olesia Kobenko
• Pages: 435-440

International Relations in the Contemporary World. Geopolitics and Diplomacy

435

Eurasia: The Rivalry of Global Integration Projects

Olesia Kobenko1

Abstract: The article reveals the Eurasian integration projects as major drivers of world globalization.

Eurasian regionalism seems to be gaining attention in the scientific liter ature. Under the current political

circumstance many regio ns are accelerating integration and many countries are opting for regional

associations as a mechanism to help them overcome the global recession. Moreover, the global political

leaders , some developed countries - the U.S., China, and the European Union (EU) are interested to set up

regional economic blocs such as Eurasian Economic Union (The EEU), the China's project 'One Belt One

Road', the U.S's projects - The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and The Transatlantic Trade and Investment

Partnership (TTIP). The goal of this paper is to introduce a number of integration initiatives and to analyze

the current strategies of Eurasian regionalism.

Keywords: The European Union (EU); The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU); The One Belt One Road

(OBOR); The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

In recent years there take place a various economic, political and military shocks - the economic crisis,

the problem of illegal migration, the conflict in Ukraine, terrorism, military clashes in the Middle East

- all of this facts tells us that existing system of international relations is needed to be transformed

according to a new reality. Considering the global political instability and crisis processes the modern

stage of international relation system is characterized by intensifying of integration activity. Some

states are trying to solve their internal and external problems combining their efforts with other states

within the integration unions.

In the XX century Halford Mackinder, Karl Haushofer, Nicholas Spykman who are regarded as the

founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy in their geopolitical conceptions consider the

Eurasia as a key continent and therefore as an object of political and economic rivalry between the

most powerful international actors.

The major integrating centers in Eurasia are the EU, Russia, China and the USA. Each of these centers

have implement their own integration initiatives and cooperation programs. The international crisis

that began in 2014 because of the political events in Ukraine partly was a result of serious conflict of

interest between Russia and the EU about the post-soviet space' future prospects which is perceived in

Moscow as a natural historical, geographical, economic and cultural Russia's zone of influence.

1 PhD Student at the Department of History and World Politics Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, Ukraine,

Address: Dvoryanskaya Str, 2 Odessa, Ukraine, Corresponding author: kobenkoolesya@ukr.net.