Today, the asymmetry of power, geopolitical goals and interests of more powerful international actors determine how small states react to the changing environment of international relations. Depending on the regional and global balance of power, a small state can pursue an independent foreign policy. In Europe as a continent, small states in the context of the growing geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the EU are trying to manage their opportunities and risks, relying both on their national interests and on the interests of their neighbors.

However, the question arises, what is a small state and what are their characteristic features. Is it a small land area, a small population? Or is it a narrow circle of interests and involvement in foreign policy due to limited resources. And how small states can negotiate the desires, goals and objectives of the more powerful.

Understanding the nature of small states will make it possible to identify the essence of the many dilemmas and problems facing small States, which consist in finding ways to combine different political and strategic cultures of small countries and their large neighbors, sets of values and norms, national and international identity.

In choosing their foreign policy strategy, small states should also carefully consider various internal and external factors leading to the achievement of their goals and objectives. This choice is important because it directly affects the configuration of the possibilities for resuming a constructive dialogue with Russia. In order to translate this discussion from a theoretical and conceptual framework into a practical one, the study will examine the small states of the EU and the post-Soviet space.

Brady, A-M & Thorhallsson, B. (Eds) (2021), Small States and the New Security Environment, Cham (Switzerland): Springer.

Chong, A. & Maass, M. (2010), Introduction: The Foreign Policy Power of Small States, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 23(3), 381-382.

Knudson, O. F. (1996), Analysing Small State Security: The Role of External Factors, in Bauwens, W., Clesse, A. & Knudson, O. F. (Eds.), Small States and Security Challenge in the New Europe, London/Washington DC: Brassey’s, 3-20.

Weiss, Tomáš and Edwards, Geoffrey (eds). (2022). Small States and Security in Europe. Between National and International Policymaking. London: Routledge.

Current Russian politics seem to puzzle statesmen and analysts alike. Moreover, they lead to an abundance of speculations, and less useful coordinates for contouring relevant politics. Despite the intense debate within the academia on the Russian post-Soviet identity and on images of Europe shaped within Russia, there are still arduous questions on Russia’s intentions in Europe. Since the bases of the current world order were laid in the 1990s, exploring the discourses during Yeltsin’s presidency and his rhetoric surface as pertinent for understanding the current state of Russian politics, in general, and EU-Russia relations, in particular. Focusing on the president’s narrative is essential as he is not only the highest authority in the state and the main representative - hence, image - of Russia on the international arena, but also a fundamental element of the state’s personal identity - as symbol of power and political culture built around a strong central figure.

Benefitting from a double-layered methodological approach – combining discourse analysis and the constructivist theory of IR – the paper aims to address the following questions: What role identity did Yeltsin envision for post-communist Russia? What significance did Yeltsin attribute to the EU and how did he describe the European security? Ultimately, the paper intends to explore the degree in which the president’s rhetoric contributed to the debate on Russia’s stance towards the EU during his terms, but especially to laying the basis of the current Russian policy towards the EU, considering his evolution from the liberal to the romantic-nationalist discourse.

The paper aims to address the fact that at a time when the EU is paying attention to the region, the regional cooperation boosted the interaction between the EU and the Western Balkans but failed to approach the rule of law issues and democratic standards. Also, the regional cooperation overlaps the Open Balkans initiative and the harmony between the states of the regiona, especially between Albania and Kosovo is at stake. The paper enlightens the challenges of the regional cooperation during the last years, the contribute that this process has in the integration process and the role played by Albania.

Also, the paper framework wanted to address the credibility of the EU promise of integration, if the incentive of the integration is not credible, the EU’s insistence on fostering regional cooperation can be easily interpreted as a mean of postponing membership or even as an alternative to full membership. How will this influence the relations between the region and the region and the EU?

Romani people are the single largest ethnic minority in Europe. According to the European Union(EU) Fundamental Rights Agency(FRA), approximately eighty per cent of Roma surveyed in EU member countries as well as accession countries were at risk of poverty in 2021 and about twenty-five per cent of the interviewed faced discrimination(FRA Report,2022). The expression of anti-Roma hate manifests in violent attacks on Romani individuals and their neighbourhoods. This paper argues that moving to safer countries is a means for Romani people to save their lives, but the regressive citizenship policies adopted by the EU member countries have made it difficult for them to migrate. The dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992 and Czechoslovakia in 1993 led to a large number of Romani people in these regions being rendered stateless because the newly formed states required official documents to prove their birth in the former states, Roma people, by their virtue of lifestyle, could not maintain these documents, The apathy and bureaucratic red tape in these new states also compounded the problem. Many Romani people from Western Balkan countries(former Yugoslavia) have fled to safer EU Member countries to escape discrimination and violence. However, In Italy, thousands of Roma people from Balkan countries live in a precarious state as they don't possess documents(Rado, 2013). Germany in 2015 alone deported more than twenty thousand people, among them a sizeable number of Romani people, to western Balkan counties, i.e. Albania, Kosovo, and Serbia(Brenner,2016). France In 2008 deported thousands of Romani people from Romania and Bulgaria(Astier,2014). This paper argues neglecting and deporting Roma people from Germany, France and other EU member states violates TEU Article 18: Non-Discrimination and Citizenship of the Union, Free Movement Directive –2004/38/EC and Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The European Commission must strengthen its existing framework to protect the fundamental rights of the stateless people in both member countries and accession countries.