Measuring Hierarchy in the European Union and Eastern Partnership Countries

For more than a decade, Russian foreign policy has pursued a policy of re-establishing a sphere of influence in areas formerly governed or dominated by the Soviet Union. This chapter places Russia’s policy within the theoretical frame of hierarchy in international relations, that is, the establishment of unequal political relations between two juridically equal states. I introduce an original Hierarchy and Resilience Index (HRI), based on a novel data set, which evaluates the hierarchical relations of Russia, the United States, and China along security, economic, diplomatic, and informational categories. Initial results indicate that Russia’s attempts to recreate a sphere of influence in Europe and Eurasia have largely failed, particularly in the states of the Eastern Partnership. War and frozen conflict in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova have seen those states minimise connections with Russia, while Russia has emphasised military relations with Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan even more strongly. For the European Union, its political choices are relatively clear for the Eastern Partnership. Since those states are the object of security competition between Russia and the United States, and economic competition between China and all other external powers, the European Union will have to engage with the competitive international environment on its eastern borders or cede political influence to others.