Eurasian Economic Union: Towards Economic Prosperity, or towards Power Gains?

• Thesis title in Czech: Eurasijský ekonomický svaz: Cesta k ekonomické prosperitě, nebo mocenským ziskům?
• Thesis title in English: Eurasian Economic Union: Towards Economic Prosperity, or towards Power Gains?
• Key words: Obsahová analýza, Eurasijský ekonomický svaz, diskurz, Rusko, Kazachstán, Bělorusko, Arménie, Kyrgyzstán, motivace
• English key words: Content analysis, the Eurasian Economic Union, discourse, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, motivations
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2014/2015
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of International Relations (23-KMV)
• Supervisor: doc. Michal Parízek, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 17.06.2015
• Date of assignment: 30.09.2015
• Date and time of defence: 21.06.2016 00:00
• Venue of defence: IPS FSV UK, U kříže 8/661 158 00 Praha 5 – Jinonice
• Date of electronic submission: 13.05.2016
• Date of proceeded defence: 21.06.2016
• Opponents: PhDr. Irah Kučerová, Ph.D.

Preliminary scope of work in English

What explains the attitudes of EEU members towards this integration project? What incentives do the EEU member states have to join this integration project, and what they want to achieve?

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) launched as a new regional integration project challenging western-led order on the continent. The thesis aims to explain by which motives the EEU is driven. We look into four hypotheses that might explain the main incentives of members for joining and developing such an organization.
1) The EEU members seek to promote economic effectiveness and the inward market integration; 2) The EEU members seek to strengthen their political and military power in the region; 3) The EEU members seek to expand their own role in the global politics; 4) The EEU members seek to challenge the institutions forming the existing global order.
As Western journalists and politicians argue, the EEU might be the illustration of Russian hegemonic ambitions to project a power onto the territory called in Russia as “near abroad”. However, Moscow claims that EEU is designed as an effective international organization beneficial for all the members indiscriminately.
We identify the tendencies that set the actual role of EEU, based on the analysis of primary sources such as official documentation, media reports, public speeches, etc., and with using the discourse analysis both in Russian and English language. We use the secondary resources to create the theoretical framework for the hypotheses which refer to the theory of economic integration; theory of global governance; concept of hegemony and concept of multi-polarity.