" Nearly three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, early hopes for the integration of the post-Soviet states into a "Europe whole and free" seem to have been decisively dashed. Europe itself is in the midst of a multifaceted crisis that threatens the considerable gains of the post-war liberal European experiment. In Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and Europe Since 1989, Katherine Graney provides a panoramic and historically-rooted overview of the process of "Europeanization" in Russia and all fourteen of the former Soviet republics since 1989. Graney argues that deeply rooted ideas about Europe's cultural-civilizational primacy and concerns about both ideological and institutional alignment with Europe continue to influence both internal politics in contemporary Europe and the processes of Europeanization in the post-Soviet world. By comparing the effect of the phenomenon across Russia and the ex-republics, Graney provides a theoretically grounded and empirically rich window into how we should study politics in the former USSR. "-- Provided by publisher.

Part One. Theories and histories of Europeanization and the post-Communist world since 1989. From Europhilia to Europhobia?: Trajectories and theories of Europeanization in the post-Communist world since 1989 -- Europe as a cultural-civilizational construct -- Political Europeanization since 1989 -- Security Europeanization since 1989 -- Cultural-civilizational Europeanization since 1989 -- Part Two. Case studies. Russia: eternal and incomplete Europeanization -- The Baltic States: successful "return to Europe" -- Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova: almost European? -- The Caucasus states: the endpoint of Europe or Europe's new eastern boundary? -- The central Asian states: not European by mutual agreement? -- Conclusion: The continuing influence of the eurocentric-Orientalist cultural gradient on European, Russian, and post-Soviet politics.