The formation of the Eurasian Economic Union: How successful is the Russian regional hegemony?

Abstract

January 2015 witnessed an important step towards further integration in Eurasia, with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) coming into operation. It comprises three members of the former Eurasian Customs Union (CU), Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, plus Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. Recent debates on Eurasian integration consider the EAEU to be a Russian hegemonic project in the region. However, the potential of this project is yet to be discovered. This article has pioneered in applying the neo-Gramscian approach to analysing the potential for the EAEU as a Russian counter-hegemonic initiative. The neo-Gramscian understanding of hegemony, which constitutes of four core elements, is reflected in the structure of the article: the institutional design, material capabilities (the capitalist system), security invulnerability (geopolitics) and cultural leadership. The article concludes that Russian regional hegemony has not yet been formed, but has the potential to be completed. Hegemony has been consolidated domestically, and has started outward expansion through the EAEU as its institutional mechanism. However, to succeed with its hegemonic project, the Russian government should not simply copy the EU's institutional design but learn how to present the achievements of integration as successful efforts at creating a strong welfare system that favours key social groups in order to obtain social consent and take cultural leadership. The novelty of the presentation of hegemony as an evolutionary process, which passes through initial, transitional and conclusive phases of its development, along with the recentness of the EAEU as a topic, could make this article a contribution to Eurasian integration studies.