War and Democracy: Political Development in Eastern Europe in Light of Russian Aggression

Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression on Ukraine has inevitably altered Europe’s security architecture. It serves as a tragic reminder that, for Eastern Europe, the widely cited return of geopolitics is nothing but a myth, given the Kremlin’s long history of military intervention and meddling in the domestic affairs of almost all sovereign states at the EU’s eastern borders. Whilst Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s territorial integrity has allowed particularly Ukraine and Moldova to integrate closer into Western structures, pushing them to further advance democratic reforms, the war’s impact on the domestic political trajectory of the remaining countries in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood is mixed and, in a sense, less obvious. Instances of further authoritarianisation, such as in Azerbaijan and Belarus, coincide with severe democratic backsliding in Georgia and stalled democratic reforms in Armenia that is increasingly pivoting to the West. This high-level panel debate, organized by REDEMOS – an international, Horizon Europe-funded research project, focusing on EU democracy support towards Eastern Europe – aims to shed light on the fallouts of Russian aggression on domestic political development in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood and ponders two interlinked questions, notably what is the future, if any, of democracy in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood and how to make external democracy support action towards the region more effective and resilient?