This paper takes the Ukrainian crisis as a starting point to address David Mitrany's charge that regional integration will only reproduce the problems of the territorial state on a higher level. As the Ukraine debacle has testified, Mitrany's fears were not unfounded, as part of the problem was the effect of drawing new boundaries at the eastern borders of the EU'S sphere of influence. The EU thus has failed the litmus test of being a normative power in Ian Manners' definition of transforming the international society, and it has not managed to extend it supposed post-territorial character to its external policy. In this paper, I want to trace the discourses of identity, territoriality and European governance within the EU, in which such new bordering policies are situated. In particular, I will argue that the effects of the borders of the internal market are often underestimated. I will then take up the challenge of envisioning alternative forms of articulating regional identity and territoriality. I will do so both theoretically by drawing on the peace modelling literature, and empirically by demonstrating that the EU, in the past, had indeed been more creative, even vis-a-vis Russia, when it came to dealing with border issues.
