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The European Union's (EU) 2019 New Strategy for Central Asia and joint meetings with Central Asia's five foreign ministers established standards and expectations for mutual relations. Throughout those initiatives and proclamations, the EU stresses its un-geopolitical essence and behaviour, including the statement that affords the article's title. The article identifies five issue areas that demonstrate that, despite declarations otherwise, the EU reasons and acts geopolitically in this contested region: (1) the promotion of Central Asian regionalism; (2) the inclusion of Central Asia in formations beneficial to the EU; (3) selectively in economic and functionalist cooperation; (4) democracy, human rights and civil society promotion; and (5) international education cooperation. The EU identifies its comparative advantage through cost–benefit analyses and seeks to enhance its attractiveness by offering its allies to Central Asia, while excluding other, present actors. That the EU is often outmanoeuvred does not diminish this subtle yet discernible geopolitical conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western-Russian relations are inarguably at their worst of the post-Cold War era. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) remains a key international forum for multilateral engagement. Part of the OSCE's uniqueness is its formation around three dimensions of security, which constitute its comprehensive security. The Economic and Environmental (EED) is the most overlooked yet, as this paper demonstrates, also possesses substantial capacity for easing some tensions. Through, first, an analysis of the place of EED in the OSCE, and thus between the West and Russia, the article establishes potentialities for cooperation. Second, it identifies lack of support, most notably among Western governments, rather than post-Soviet, and the place of EED activities in post-Soviet states. Third, the article pinpoints unexpected but very real forms of cooperation in the EED in the protracted post-Soviet conflicts of Transnistria-Moldova and Abkhazia-Georgia, which can establish trust between parties with the potential to expand confidence-building further. The article concludes by calling for further use of the EED, in a time when it remains underestimated but of unexpected - and essential - value for confidence-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western-Russian relations are inarguably at their worst of the post-Cold War era. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) remains a key international forum for multilateral engagement. Part of the OSCE's uniqueness is its formation around three dimensions of security, which constitute its comprehensive security. The Economic and Environmental (EED) is the most overlooked yet, as this paper demonstrates, also possesses substantial capacity for easing some tensions. Through, first, an analysis of the place of EED in the OSCE, and thus between the West and Russia, the article establishes potentialities for cooperation. Second, it identifies lack of support, most notably among Western governments, rather than post-Soviet, and the place of EED activities in post-Soviet states. Third, the article pinpoints unexpected but very real forms of cooperation in the EED in the protracted post-Soviet conflicts of Transnistria-Moldova and Abkhazia-Georgia, which can establish trust between parties with the potential to expand confidence-building further. The article concludes by calling for further use of the EED, in a time when it remains underestimated but of unexpected - and essential - value for confidence-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]