Reshaping the European Order: Diplomatic Transformations and Realignments in the Wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine provoked a radical evaluation of the European order, which has resulted in a cross-sectional examination of its geopolitical and socio-economic foundations. This paper will discuss the effects of this war in the context of geopolitics on the assumption of peace and economic interdependence in Europe following the cold war. The war has also cast uncertainty on the question of sovereignty and autonomy of both the major and peripheral European states. The study places the conflict in the context of the greater geopolitics to emphasise how the ex-Eastern bloc states have placed their interests in the context of international geopolitics; struggling both with Russian neo-imperialism and with Western patronage. Likewise, European Union’s policy towards further enlargement, accentuating integration highlights the significance of “East” and marks a shift in interest from technocratic governance towards an over-arching policy-making embodied in the EU. Through a qualitative approach, the paper contends that Europe is undergoing a structural metamorphosis further shaped by imminent dangers of war, border security issues, by both large and small states.