Push back, contain, and engage: How the EU should approach relations with Russia
The bloc should reframe how it speaks of human rights and democracy, while developing closer security and military links with select neighbours
Experts & Staff
Nicu Popescu
Director, Wider Europe programme
Areas of expertise
Russian domestic and foreign policies; Eastern Partnership countries and their relations with the EU; post-Soviet conflicts; cybersecurity
Languages
English, Russian, French, Romanian
Biography
Nicu Popescu is the director of the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and he works from ECFR’s Paris office. His topics of focus include EU’s relations with Russia and the Eastern Partnership countries.
In 2019, Popescu served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova. Previously, he worked as a senior analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies (2013-2018); senior advisor on foreign policy to the prime minister of Moldova (2010, 2012-2013); senior research fellow at ECFR’s London office (2007-2009, 2011-2012), and as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007).
Popescu teaches at Sciences-Po Paris. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He is author of the EU foreign policy and post-Soviet conflicts: stealth intervention (Routledge 2010) and co-editor of Democratization in EU Foreign Policy (with Benedetta Berti and Kristina Mikulova), published in 2015.
Why the EU should stop waiting for the Godot of Russian decline
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How Russia and the West try to weaken each other
The West and Russia are both worse off for their efforts to try to weaken each other. This competition will only end when one side feels it is losing the race.
The EU and Belarus in 2021
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Publications
Push back, contain, and engage: How the EU should approach relations with Russia
The bloc should reframe how it speaks of human rights and democracy, while developing closer security and military links with select neighbours
A new transatlantic bargain: An action plan for transformation, not restoration
The Trump years galvanised Europeans’ efforts to strengthen their own sovereignty; they now need to agree concrete offers they can make to the new administration
The best defence: Why the EU should forge security compacts with its eastern neighbours
If the EU is to be more geopolitically influential in its own neighbourhood, it needs to start developing strategic security partnerships with key neighbours to the east and the south
Defender of the faith? How Ukraine’s Orthodox split threatens Russia
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Learning to deal with a changing Russia under a familiar leader
A Chance to Reform: How the EU can support democratic evolution in Morocco
Helping Moroccan democracy through evolution not revolution
Turning Presence into Power: the EU in its eastern neighbourhood
The EU needs to be more influential in its eastern neighbourhood
After the revolution: Europe and the transition in Tunisia
Tunisians need European help to turn their revolution into a democracy
European and Russian power in the troubled neighbourhood
The EU's strategy for influence in the eastern neighbourhood
Articles
Why the EU should stop waiting for the Godot of Russian decline
Many in Europe think Russia is in decline, but basing EU policy on such deterministic thinking is a mistake. The EU should deal with Russia of today, not with that of 2050 or 2070.
Why attempts to reset relations with Russia fail
Offering ‘resets’ to Russia does not work. On the contrary, a more muscular approach to the country will yield results
The geopolitics of covid vaccines in Europe’s eastern neighbourhood
Many of the EU’s neighbours are hoping it will help them secure vaccines – leaving offers from China and Russia to flood in
How Russia and the West try to weaken each other
The West and Russia are both worse off for their efforts to try to weaken each other. This competition will only end when one side feels it is losing the race.
Europe needs to nurture security partnerships or face growing isolation
No matter who wins the US election, the EU will need to play a bigger security role in its neighbourhood
How the EU became marginalised in Nagorno-Karabakh
EU diplomacy could facilitate a conflict settlement process by pressuring Armenia and Azerbaijan to start implementing the Madrid Principles
A captive ally: Why Russia isn’t rushing to Armenia’s aid
Russia appears willing to allow Azerbaijan to recapture some areas around Nagorno-Karabakh, betting on Armenian dependency and Azerbaijani gratitude
A hill here, a village there: Nagorno-Karabakh and the salami-slicing wars
Azerbaijan and Armenia are shifting from two decades of ‘frozen conflict settlement’ to an era of ‘salami-slicing wars’ – small conflicts designed to extract diplomatic concessions or regain territory from the adversary slice by slice
Belarus and Armenia: How Russia handles uprisings
Russia’s goal in its neighbourhood is to regain influence, not to be surrounded by neutral, self-sufficient buffer states
Russia showed Turkey and China how to bully the EU
The more meekly the EU handles other powers’ aggressive tactics, the more they will be tempted to imitate each other in novel ways to ignore, challenge, and openly attack European interests
Podcasts
Belarus’s brutal politics
What kind of implications do the developments in Belarus have for the wider neighbourhood and Europe?
Stranger in Moscow: Borrell’s unwelcome visit
What lessons can be drawn from Josep Borrell’s controversial visit to Moscow?
Europe’s new transatlantic bargain for Biden’s America
When Biden enters the White House, he will look for a Europe that brings solutions rather than problems. Europeans should show they can be an equal partner & offer him a new transatlantic bargain.
Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia and Azerbaijan’s thawing of the ‘frozen conflict’
The contested Nagorno-Karabakh region is at the heart of a decades-long armed standoff between neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan. The…
Russia’s Syria, Turkey’s Libya?
The attempt of a peace process in Libya is facing several substantial hindrances, where a variety of actors keep on inducing significant upheavals in its…
As covid-19 arrives, Putin disappears – Russia in the age of corona.
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Geopolitics in the coronavirus era – who will be crowned winner?
Last week’s episode saw our experts dissecting the coronavirus’ implications for Europe. In today's episode, we’re breaking down how the crisis is unfolding in the…
Europe’s Eastern Neighbourhood: Ukraine and Moldova
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Ukraine Under President Zelensky
Podcast de notre débat du 21 mai « Ukraine Under President Zelensky » en présence de Victor Andruziv, directeur de l’Ukrainian Institute for…
The Sea of Azov: The newest front in the war in Ukraine?
Mark Leonard speaks with Andrew Wilson, Kadri Liik and Nicu Popescu about the Kerch Strait ship capture, what this means and how the international community…
In the media
Many Eastern countries have difficulties in the domain of health. They often had light confinements because they did not have enough financial resources to support the national economy (…).
Nicu Popescu explains the difficulties that Eastern European countries are enduring in the management of the health emergency.
Le Monde quotes Nicu Popescu on the necessity to change the approach to Russia.
Nicu Popescu is quoted in an article from L’Express on European sanctions toward Russia.
According to Nicu Popescu, sanctions may not push Russia to release Navalny, but they may help to protect him.
Carl Bildt quotes Nicu Popescu and Kadri Liik in his latest op-ed on the West’s attempts to reset relations with Russia.