Memory, Integration, Eurasia and Russia

The Eurasian Economic Union (the EAEU), bringing together five countries was formed in 2015. Building on a number of previous regional and inter-regional agreements and organisation, EAEU has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over 4 trillion USD. Russia is at the heart of EAEU and it brings into its orbit the former Soviet republics; however, there are plans for EAEU to include countries which were never part of the USSR. Many believe that EAEU is an economic and political rival to the EU and that it appeared in response to the European Union enlargement in the 2000 and mimics the EU structure and ambition. 

It is possible to see the EAEU as the second example of deliberate consolidation and expansion in the name of economic prosperity, public good and sustainable development; however, arguably, its actual founding pillars are memory and securitization.

In spite of the differences in their ethos and regulation, the EU and EAEU use claims for individual and collective safety along with commemoration strategies to influence the decision-making process, which feeds the negative feedback loop as other organisations and unions see these claims a threat to their own safety and security. The dichotomy of ‘us versus them’ is often the driving force behind strategic risk decisions whilst security has been used as an umbrella term for all kinds of public goods, transnational markets, and expressions of ‘the specific way of life’.