What does the recent conference on the EU's "Eastern Partnership" portend? Is the lauded war strategy perfected by Julius Caesar against the Gauls, divide and conquer, being replaced with a peace strategy: unite and liberate (i.e. with us, from an other and yourselves)? The one ushered in the foundational ties upon which the Europe is still being built; the other could either bring about a radical return to two-millennia old geopolitical lines or a new era in which they will, arguably for the first time since, be totally redrawn-- or even erased.
The use of the term "stabilize" by the diplomats in referring to the sought-for process and outcome for the six nations in questions (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) could very well be a euphemism for unite and liberate, so that Russia has one linguistically less reason to feel threatened. The actual definition for "stabilize" used was to "accelerate political association and further economic integration." Six cucumbers or half a dozen makes the same size salad, and as the French ambassador said the EU may have enough to eat with the unification and liberation of the Balkan states.
"This is not against Russia," was the EU leaders' chorus led by its Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso. Do not think of a pink elephant. The implication of stating that "this" not against Russia is that "this" is, in fact, for the EU. The funny thing is the degree of effort the EU is putting into not seeming they are trying to unite and liberate former Eastern Bloc countries from their former hegemon, Russia. This feigning is a paradoxical continuation of Cold War PR and an about face to it: you were communist others in our backyard, and are welcome into a partnership with us but must stay in our backyard, to the designated 'east' of 'us'; that makes you 'west' of 'them', where 'we' want you to be and for 'them', you are.
The odd thing is how complacent the US is being in maybe the first real big post-Cold War steps taken to redraw the global (rather than strictly continental) politico-economic map. Even the talk of Turkey joining the EU would be a return to the Roman Empire before its linguistic division. The EU is doing such a great job at the tightrope act between Russia and the US that the latter two might one day join up against the former. Unite and liberate as a peace strategy may be the opposite of divide and conquer or the same in another guise, only as this curious current event becomes the future will we know.
