Strengthening the ENP through regional civil society cooperation: The case for the inclusion of a regional civil society component into the European Neighbourhood Policy in the South Caucasus

Abstract: This article argues that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has to be considered and evaluated as a structural foreign policy that seeks to influence political, legal, socio-economic, security and mental structures over the long-term, rather than
being a conventional foreign policy, focussing on states, military crises and conflicts (Keukeleire and MacNaughtan, 2008). It stresses that, if the ENP wants to be effective as a structural foreign policy in the South Caucasus, it needs to enhance its attention for regional civil society cooperation. It develops an innovative framework, illustrating the potential of regional civil society
cooperation on three levels: the substate (i.e. the relations between the societies of the ‘nation state’ and their break-away regions), the transstate (i.e. the relations between the societies of the three South Caucasian states) and the international level (i.e. the relations between the region and international actors).
The main argument is that through an enhanced attention for civil society cooperation by financing and coordinating projects and activities on these three levels, the EU should empower civil society and instrumentalize it as one of the keys to turn the ENP into an effective structural foreign policy.