Since the turn of the 2020s, Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus have been the stage of major upheavals from the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and the dissolution of the self-proclaimed republic, to massive protests in Belarus and Georgia, and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Yet the agency of the in-between countries in the EU's and Russia's shared neighbourhood has been largely overlooked in International Relations, where they are often portrayed as passive victims in the hands of regional powers.

This book challenges that view, showing how these countries particularly Armenia and Georgia can be active agents capable of shaping both their own futures and that of the region. Focusing on the period from 2008 to early 2024, it explores how Armenia and Georgia use their liminal subjectivity in-between two competing regional cores as a resource for agency in the framework of their foreign policy. Strikingly, both countries have significantly reshaped their liminality and related agency over the covered period.

Relying on a poststructuralist approach to discourse analysis, this book traces Armenia's and Georgia's evolving identity and foreign policy discourse, revealing how they (re-)articulate their role identity. It highlights how their agency produces both reproductive and subversive effects on hegemonic structures, while creating divisive and connective representations of their regional environment.

Inspired by a postcolonial research agenda, this study amplifies the voices of subaltern actors entangled in hierarchical structures. By examining agency through the lens of liminality and its interplay with ontological (in)security, it contributes to the growing trend in International Relations that foregrounds the specific perspectives and agency of countries in the EU's and Russia's neighbourhood departing from dominant Eurocentric and Russo-centric views on the region.

Offers an innovative exploration of Armenia's and Georgia's evolving identity and foreign policy Challenges the prevailing view of these in-between states as passive actors dominated by regional powers Questions the binary frameworks frequently imposed on this region, such as East/West and pro-EU/pro-Russia dichotomies

Autorentext

Louise Amoris holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Ghent University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, and UNU-CRIS. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of European Studies, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris. Her research bridges International Relations and Area Studies, examining identity and foreign policy in Eastern European and South Caucasian states. She places particular emphasis on the agency of these states as they navigate hegemonic regional structures in the EU's and Russia's shared neighbourhood.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2 The shared neighbourhood in-between Russia and the EU: from objects to subjects.- Chapter 3 Liminality in dialogue with ontological (in)security.- Chapter 4 Creation of spaces of liminality: the EU's and Russia's Othering of their shared neighbourhood.- Chapter 5 Relocating itself at the core: Georgia as the EU's wingman on the fringe.- Chapter 6 Armenia at the crossroads and beyond the EU and Russia.- Chapter 7 So close and yet so different: Georgia and Armenia, two neighbours, two different experiences of liminality.- Chapter 8 Conclusion.