FOREIGN POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION TOWARDS THE SOUTH CAUCASUS IN 1992-2014 Nino Kereselidze A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2015 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6824 This item is protected by original copyright Foreign Policy of the European Union towards the South Caucasus in 1992-2014 Nino Kereselidze The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations 7 May 2015 Scotland, United Kingdom 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Nino Kereselidze, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2012 and as a candidate for the degree of September 2013; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2012 and 2015. Date 2 March 2015 signature of candidate ……… 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I, Rick Fawn, hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date 2 March 2015 signature of supervisor ……… 3. Permission for publication: In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the publication of this thesis: PRINTED COPY No embargo on print copy ELECTRONIC COPY No embargo on electronic copy Date 2 March 2015 signature of candidate ……… signature of supervisor ……… i ii To all those who have supported this work with gratitude iii iv Acknowledgements The past three years of PhD studies in International Relations at the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom was a special experience, combining many dimensions, embodied in this dissertation on the foreign policy of the European Union towards the South Caucasus. This work would have been utterly impossible without Professor Rick Fawn and his willingness to supervise my studies and exercise strong pastoral care. Professor Fawn has been a genuinely exemplary supervisor whose nuanced understanding of the post-Soviet space is fascinating. I remain deeply respectful of unwavering enthusiasm with which my supervisor has supported me to orchestrate this work, and continues to train academic and policy community across the continents. Being distinct for its scholarly excellence, the School of International Relations where I pursued this degree impressed me with its regional focus on the Caucasus, which created a stimulating environment in which to explain conflict and cooperation in Europe’s eastern neighbourhood. With this, I wish to extend my gratitude for examining this thesis to Dr Holger Stritzel, Professor Andrew Williams and Professor S. Neil MacFarlane who are distinguished by their long-standing interests in the post-Soviet politics and European institutions. Separately, as English is my third language, I should like to thank Sandra Piai and Rebecca Brown for the proofreading assistance for the final version of this thesis. It was an intellectual pleasure to contribute to the research culture of the School by participating in academic events. The most notable of these were public lectures at the Centre for Russian, Soviet and Central and Eastern European Studies (CRSCEES), and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS). I should like to thank the Institute of Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus Studies (MECACS) and Professor Sally Cummings for sharing her expertise during seminars. I am further delighted to have had an opportunity to tutor on IR modules. Thank you to the School Secretariat for their support during my studies and my teaching. Assisting the Registry was also a good way of helping incoming students. Skills courses at the Centre for Academic, Professional and Organisational Development (CAPOD) was a training in itself. In addition, I am proud that we initiated an exchange between St Andrews Library and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, and Georgian Technical University. Last but not least, it was a privilege to be a founding member of the Georgian Society. The breadth of support that this university offers to students is remarkable and with this, I wish to thank the Athletic Union, and the Orthodox community of Saint Andrew. The past three years have been labour-intensive and even more so was the search for funding. I want to acknowledge a number of institutions for co-funding my studies during the various stages. Embarking on my degree would not have been possible without the University of St Andrews and the School of IR PG scholarships. Open Society Foundations (OSF) with Global Supplementary Grant Program (GSGP) enabled me to get my research project off the drawing board to where it is now. Having gone through the wardennial service at Agnes Blackadder Hall, I thank Student Services for the Assistant Warden Scholarship. My fieldwork in Azerbaijan and Armenia was made possible with the Field Research Grant. Thank you to the Thomas & Margaret Roddan Trust for their Bursary. Presenting parts of my work at the conferences with the Academic Swiss Caucasus Net (ASCN), University of Glasgow, and University of Nottingham was a real delight. All provided much needed support. This work built on my MA thesis on international mediation in the South Caucasus written at the Central European University (CEU) in Hungary under supervision of Dr Erin K. Jenne. Never, have v I felt myself so fortunate as in 2007 when I won the opportunity to study abroad. For this, I remain grateful to George Soros for setting up this educational architecture. Reuniting with our community in Budapest, Oxford and Cambridge has always been a jovial occasion. Another work that furthered the basis for this research was my MSc thesis on the EU’s involvement in the Russia-Georgia conflict written at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Here I extend my gratitude to Professor Dr Henk Overbeek, Dr Mient Jan Faber, Dr Ben Crum, and Dr Phillip Pattberg. Ideas developed in this thesis were largely shaped during my stays with governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental institutions in 2009-2011. The early stage of writing coincided with an internship at the Embassy of Georgia to the UK. Research assistance at the London-based Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) think tank enabled me to delve into the EU’s energy policy, whilst at the London-based peacebuilding INGO International Alert, and at the Hague-based European Association of History Educators – EUROCLIO, the human dimension of regional conflicts came to the forefront. A desire to understand the potential lessons from the Northern Irish conflict motivated me at that time to undertake a study visit to Belfast. I would further like to thank diverse group of experts who granted me interviews. Among them, I acknowledge responses on the EU foreign policy during my fieldwork in Brussels at the Council of the EU, the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well at the UK Foreign Office and the Houses of Parliament; and included in this, the honour of posing questions to world-leading scholars Lord William Wallace, Joseph Nye, Stephen D. Krasner, and Nicholas Burns. The Ministry of Economy of Sustainable Development of Georgia, and Maritime Transport Agency in Batumi have been incredibly kind in welcoming me back after my statutory leaves in-between term times since 2012. It was during my work with the Ministry, and the United Nations agency International Maritime Organization (UN IMO) in London, when I discovered that transport politics did not previously receive scholarly attention. To this end, I am grateful to the Georgian Government for awarding me a scholarship established by the Prime Minister of Georgia in the final year of my studies. I also want to remember a scholarship from the Development and Reforms Fund under the President of Georgia received earlier in 2007. I cannot think of any more fitting way of fostering my experience, than being committed to civil service, and returning scholarly work. The topic of my research was preconditioned by my undergraduate years at the Ilia State University (of Language and Culture) in Tbilisi. I would like to remember just a few from the corps of professors Ambassador Gela Charkviani, Gocha Javakhishvili, Otar Kochoradze, Nelly Murmanishvili, the late Shalva Pichkhadze, Frank Schreier, Rosemary Veneziale, and Mzia Gvilava. Simon Sebag Montefiore with whom I embarked on my first research for his major book Young Stalin in 2005 encouraged me in many instances.