EU’s Geopolitical Approach in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Strategic Influence of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance Framework

Vladimir Putin’s War and the illiberal revisionism of the past years triggered a series of global, European, and regional changes on multiple dimensions: strategic, geopolitical, security, economic, energy, environment, communication, infrastructure, or even technological challenges. The European Union (EU) along with its strategic partners, mainly with the United States (US) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), face the threats, risks, and consequences of the Russian aggression against the post-Cold War European and global order. This chapter explores the geopolitical approach of the EU in the context of the biggest security crisis in Europe after World War II (WWII). The Western liberal democracies are now called to act responsibly in order to support Ukraine and increase the security of the Eastern flank in this critical and crucial moment of European history. The current study applies the model of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to explore and explain the changing geopolitical processes that influence EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the development of EU-NATO cooperation in the wake of the war in Ukraine. Based on qualitative discourse analysis of EU-NATO policy documents and official statements, the study seeks to identify advocacy coalitions and study their core beliefs.