ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the competitive interregionalism in Eastern Europe between the European Union (EU) and Russia's Eurasian ambitions. Using Moldova as a case study the chapter addresses the question of how the countries ‘in-between’ respond to the competitive interregional context. Particular attention is paid to how regionalism is performed as a result of the interaction between outside-in (the EU and Russia) and inside-out (Moldova's domestic actors) discourses and practices. In order to study the unintended effects of competitive interregionalism, the chapter elaborates an analytical framework based on a poststructuralist Region Building Approach. The analysis shows how domestic actors in Moldova re-articulate contradictory notions of ‘Europeanness' and ‘Eastness' through their foreign policy discourses and simultaneously reproduce Moldova's national identity dilemma. This contributes to political instability in Moldova, which may be intended by Russia but is undesired by the EU.
