ABSTRACT
In the Ukraine crisis, the EU and Russia developed a highly institutionalized structure for their relations within the context of a mutually defined Strategic Partnership. This chapter looks at the concept of strategic and policy paradigms and examines the policy frames that prevailed prior to the paradigm shift, and fissures that developed over time between the EU and Russia. It examines the new emerging 'competing regionalisms' paradigm and explores alternative paradigms in the future, offering a potential way out of the current trajectory. he EU and Russia each had differing concepts of how an integrated European space would include neighbouring post-communist countries. Russia's promotion of the Customs Union and Eurasian Economic Union marked a step in the shift from a paradigm that involved the shared objective of a common European space to a paradigm of competitive regionalisms. The EU stands at a disadvantage in trying to promote a new 'common Europe' paradigm over the competitive regionalisms approach.
