Eurasian integration could offer a counterpoint to the EU and the United States, but only in close co-operation with states like India and China

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have pursued integration with the aim of creating a Eurasian Union by 2015. David Lane writes on the economic and political background underpinning Eurasian integration and its potential to act as a counterpoint to the hegemony of the United States in the global system. He argues that while the economic weight of the three Eurasian Union states is fairly limited, pursuing close co-operation with ‘BRICS’ countries such as Brazil, India and China could offer the basis for a more pluralist and multi-polar world