Domestic Preferences and EU Cooperation. Explaining Foreign Policies in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova: A Two-Level-Game Analysis

本研究项目的首要目标是对乌克兰、格鲁吉亚和摩尔多瓦对-à-vis欧盟的外交政策选择进行全面的外交政策分析（FPA）。因此，该项目的重点是那些不顾俄罗斯的压力与欧盟签署了联系国协议的国家，这些国家被视为东部伙伴关系（EaP）六个国家中的领先者。然而，与欧盟法律标准的近似表明，在这三个国家实施EaP的各个阶段存在高度差异，这将在对国内偏好构建的综合分析中得到解释。该项目的创新贡献在于，首先（部分地）填补了基于理论和方法上合理的后苏联国家FPA的研究空白。第二，将以前应用于巩固的民主国家的适当的FPA方法（主要是两级博弈方法）应用于非巩固的民主或混合政权的分析，从而推进对这类政权类型的FPA。第三，通过对三国外交政策的国内偏好形成进行实质性分析，而不是仅仅关注欧盟对-à-vis这些国家的政策，从而扩大东亚经济区国家研究的范围。

The paramount objective of this research project is to perform a comprehensive Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) of the foreign policy choices in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova vis-à-vis the EU. Hence, the project focuses on those countries, which have signed an Association Agreement with the EU, despite pressure from Russia, and are to be regarded as frontrunners among the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. However, approximation to EU legal standards demonstrates a high degree of variance throughout various phases of EaP implementation in these three countries, which will be explained in a comprehensive analysis of domestic preference building. The innovative contribution of this project consists in, first, (partly) filling the research gap of theory based and methodologically sound FPA on post-Soviet states. Second, in adapting suitable FPA approaches (principally the Two-Level-Game approach), which had previously been applied to consolidated democracies, to the analysis of non-consolidated democratic or hybrid regimes, thus advancing FPA on such regime types. Third, in expanding the scope of EaP country studies by undertaking a substantial analysis of domestic preference building in the three countries foreign policies, instead of focusing solely on the EUs policies vis-à-vis these states.