US and EU Support of Democratic Development of Ukraine and Political Crisis Management during the Orange Revolution (2004-2005)
2004-2005 joint effort of the United States of America (US) and the European Union (EU) to ensure a democratic presidential election in Ukraine has been seen as a success story of the transatlantic cooperation. Both - the US and the EU - actively supported the Ukrainian people in their urge for more democracy.
Both - the US and the EU - provided financial and logistic support for the election, applied political pressure on the Kuchma government, and urged the Ukrainian people to continue their protests on Maidan. During the entire period, the US and the EU applied similar methods of external democracy promotion to achieve their goals, proving therefore a certain degree of convergence of their approaches.
The only differentiating factor, though, was varying political rhetoric of the US and EU, or a certain tendency of the US to apply a more assertive language than one used by the European Union officials. As a study points out, exhibited divergences can be explained by the significant differences in the actors' foreign policy identities and their desire to continue projecting those images abroad.
Beiträge zur Internationalen Politik, Bd. 2
ISBN 9783933337832, kartoniert, 14,8x20,5 cm, 290 Seiten, 1 farb. Abb., 5 s/w Tafeln