A Tale of Two Countries: Local (F)actors in Moldova and Georgia and the Exercise of EU Control and Protean Power in Support of Democratization

The article analyses how, and with what effects, the EU has mobilized control and protean power in support of democratization in Eastern Neighbourhood countries. We show that EU approaches to democracy promotion have predominantly relied on control power, drawing on predictable instruments and incentives. Protean power has emerged only belatedly and has been used sporadically to counter hybrid threats in an increasingly uncertain and volatile regional environment. Drawing on the examples of Moldova and Georgia, we argue that the EU’s reliance on control tools has yielded contrasted outcomes due to the role of domestic (f)actors in shaping these outcomes. In Moldova, we mostly observe control outcomes, namely effects aligned with EU strategic objectives, whereas protean outcomes prevail in Georgia, as evidenced by the country’s identity shift away from the EU. The article highlights the interplay between control and protean power, as control instruments do not necessarily yield control outcomes, and protean effects can emerge even in the absence of protean tools. We demonstrate that the effects of EU power crucially hinge on the environment in which it is embedded. Ultimately, EU action is not defined solely by instruments, but also by how those instruments interact with local contexts and produce (un)intended effects.