REUNIR, a Horizon-funded project with 12 partners from across Europe, examines how the EU can strengthen its foreign and security toolboxes to bolster the resilience and transformation of (potential) candidate countries in a new age of international relations. REUNIR’s foresight approach takes the fundamental uncertainty and openness of alternative futures seriously. Adding the effects of ‘protean power’ unleashed in unforeseen circumstances to a multi-disciplinary approach to the research of the EU’s ‘control power’ in relations with strategic rivals, REUNIR empirically assesses foreign threats to the military, socio-economic and democratic resilience of nine neighbouring countries, determines capability shortfalls, maps local perceptions of the EU’s support and political perspectives inside the EU on neighbourhood relations. Outlining scenarios up to 2035, REUNIR offers evidence-based policy recommendations to mitigate malign foreign interference and contribute to strengthening the EU’s external action. REUNIR’s ultimate objective is to provide evidence-based policy recommendations to strengthen the foreign policy arsenal of the EU to support the countries of the Eastern neighbourhood and Western Balkans to withstand malign foreign influencing and stay the course on the European integration track. In scientific terms, REUNIR’s consortium of top research institutes will have a significant impact on driving forward the academic research agenda on the challenges faced by WB and EN countries and how to improve the EU enlargement and Eastern neighbourhood policies in a contested world in transition, enriching our understanding with its unique focus on the effects of the tried-and-tested concept of protean power, and innovative methodologies for foresight analysis and scenario-building. In societal terms, REUNIR will actively rely on building a support base for the transformation of partner countries, both within the EU and outside of it (mainly Western Balkans & Eastern Neighbourhood).
What is REUNIR about?
