Search results for ""Author Andreas Umland""

Ukraines 20132014 Revolution of Dignity also became known as The Euromaidan, which literally means European Square and refers to the countrys Association Agreement with the European Union. Viktor Yanukovychs postponement of the signing of this large treaty preparing Ukraine for a future EU membership application triggered the initial protests leading to the upheaval. Since then, much of Western attention to Ukrainian domestic affairs has focused on reform policies and political conflicts related to the countrys Europeanization, i.e. its adoption of EU standards and legislation. In contrast, a parallel major transformation with little relation to Ukraines EU-association process -- a multidimensional local governance and territorial reform -- has been receiving less Western journalistic and scholarly attention. That is in spite of the fact that the gradual decentralisation process that Ukraines first post-Euromaidan government started in April 2014 is an exceptionally far-ranging and already advanced reform project. It redefines not only Ukrainian center-periphery interactions, but also state-society as well as government-citizen relations. This collected volume presents five narrowly focused research papers by Max Bader (Leiden University), Igor Dunayev (Kharkiv Regional Institute of Public Administration), Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak (Prague Institute of International Relations), Maryna Rabinovych (Mechnikov University of Odessa), and Oleksii Sydorchuk (Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Kyiv). It is the first book-size English scholarly publication on Ukraines decentralization, focusing on specific problems as well as repercussions of this multifaceted process and covering issues ranging from fiscal governance to party politics. It illustrates the depth and multifariousness of the impact of Ukraines ongoing local governance reform.

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This book is an in-depth analysis of some unexpected consequences of international aid for transition in a post-communist state. Examining the reform efforts of relations between Kiev and the regions of Ukraine, Duncan Leitch explores how and why fiscal decentralization and regional policy programs initiated by the Ukrainian government and supported by the Western donor community failed to achieve a sustained outcome. Drawing on concepts from Institutional Theory, Comparative Politics, and Development Studies, Leitch explains the complex interactions between external donors and the domestic recipients of their advice. His findings throw a light on the narrow circumstances under which short-term success can be achieved, but also point towards the failings of the donor community to lay the groundwork for lasting reform. A valuable resource for anyone working in the development sector in Eastern Europe or beyond, this book provides a new outlook on the political realities of the reform process, the relevance of international advice, and the domestic pressures leading to the Maidan uprising of 2013.

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This book aims to explain the reasons behind Russia's international conduct in the post-Soviet era, examining Russian foreign policy discourse with a particular focus on the major foreign policy schools of Atlanticism, Eurasianism, derzhavniki, realpolitik, geopolitics, neo-Marxism, radical nationalism, and post-positivism. The Russian post-Soviet threat perceptions and national security doctrines are studied. The author critically assesses the evolution of Russian foreign policy decision-making over the last 25 years and analyses the roles of various governmental agencies, interest groups and subnational actors. Concluding that a foreign policy consensus is gradually emerging in contemporary Russia, Sergunin argues that the Russian foreign policy discourse aims not only at the formulation of an international strategy but also at the search for a new national identity. Alexander Sergunin argues that Russia's current domestic situation, defined by numerous socio-economic, inter-ethnic, demographic, environmental, and other problems, dictates the need to abandon superpower ambitions and to rather set modest foreign policy goals.

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This monograph discloses the estate-based social structure of contemporary Russia by way of outlining the principles of the USSR's peculiar estate system, and explaining the new social estates of post-Soviet Russia. Simon Kordonsky distinguishes and describes in particular the currently existing Russian service and support estates. He introduces the notions of a resource-based state and resource-based economy as the political and economic foundations for Russian society's estate structure. His study demonstrates, moreover, how the method of inventing and institutionalizing threats plays a dominant role in the mode of distribution of scarce resources in such a social system. The book shows fundamental differences between resource- as well as threat-based economies, on the one side, and traditional risk-based economies, on the other, and discloses what this means for Russia's future.

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The violent protests that shook Bulgaria in recent years were fueled by a widespread belief that, after 25 years of transition, a new base for the political process is required. In this important new study, Popivanov provides a critical re-assessment of the role of the Bulgarian Socialist Party - arguably, the single most important political entity in Bulgaria's post-communist history. Assessing its internal problems and the challenges it faces from a new and radical grassroots Left, Popivanov asks why and how Bulgaria's Socialist Party was the only one in the Eastern bloc to remain an important political organization, after the end of communism. This timely book skillfully analyzes the current societal and political situation in Bulgaria that threatens the Socialists and argues for a complete reformulation of the concept of the 'Bulgarian Left'.

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The war in Ukraine is putting Germany's political and economic actions to the test. For decades, Ukraine, the second-largest state in Europe, was overlooked and Russia was courted. With fatal consequences. Germany has failed, as Sabine Adler states, an expert on Eastern Europe. Her analysis focuses not only on Ukraine and the current war, but above all on Germanyʼs role-in economic, political, and media terms-in relation to the country invaded by Russia. As a long-standing and clear-sighted observer, she gives a critical assessment: Political omissions, lobbyism, double standards, and a mendacious pacifism were dominant for long periods. Time for the West to learn from the bad example of Germany and to follow a sensible policy!

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Focusing on the case of Russia during Putins first two presidential terms, this book examines media manipulation strategies in electoral authoritarian regimes. Which instruments and approaches do incumbent elites employ to skew media coverage in favour of their preferred candidate in a presidential election? What effects do these strategies have on news content? Based on two case studies of the presidential election campaigns in Russia in 2000 and in 2008, this investigation identifies the critical internal mechanisms according to which these regimes work. Looking at the same country, while it transformed from a competitive into a hegemonic authoritarian regime, allows one to make a diachronic comparison of these two regime types based on the Most-Similar Systems Design. The book explicates the subtle differences between competitive and hegemonic regimes, different types of media manipulation strategies, the diverging extent of media instrumentalisation, various interactions among state actors, large business owners, the media, and journalists, the respective effects that all these factors and interactions have on media content, and the peculiar types of bias prevalent in each type of regime. This deep exploration of post-Soviet politics is based on extensive review of documents, interviews with media professionals, and quantitative as well as qualitative content analyses of news media during two Russian presidential election campaigns.

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This book offers a comprehensive history of the Czechoslovak Ocean Shipping Company (C. O. S.) from its beginning in the late 1940s until the fall of communism. Owned by the Czechoslovak state, C. O. S.'s activities were shaped by Soviet standards. This unique study is structured according to the different phases of the Cold War and highlights the political aspects that determined C. O. S.'s fate.Lenka Kratka focuses on two contradictory economic dimensions that C. O. S. had to engage with. Being part of the planned economy of a socialist state, it also dealt with companies in the capitalist West. Another paradoxical aspect of C. O. S. emerges from the memories of former Czechoslovak seamen, who experienced relative freedom when being aboard and strict communist regime control while at home with their families. Kratka's book offers fascinating insights into a neglected topic, using thus far untapped sources and building on primary research in oral history and personal memory.

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This issue features the fourth installment in a series of special sections on the memory of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the OUN-Bandera-wing's military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian abbreviation: UPA). Within this series, historians and social scientists detail findings from their research on interwar and war-time Ukrainian nationalism as well as its contemporary public and scholarly interpretations and representations-not least, against the background of the Russian–Ukrainian war (2014–ongoing) and its related propaganda campaigns. In this issue, we also launch a series of special sections in which scholars in the fields of comparative fascism, East European right-wing extremism, and Ukrainian ultra-nationalism debate different approaches to the OUN.

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According to general Realist premises, after the end of the Cold War, the United States took an interest in remaining the only super power. Accordingly, it was attempting to maintain and manage unipolarity. The pursuit of this Grand Strategy, however, required the U.S. to adapt its various strategies to the various receiving states. Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus played very unalike roles in that configuration: Whilst Poland was labeled Americas best friend by President George W. Bush, Belarus was not seeking alignment with the U.S., whereas Ukraine-U.S. relations were subject to many ups and downs. The three countries diverging attitudes towards Washington led to very different policy approaches from a U.S. vantage point. As this study shows, the U.S. did not have an overall strategy for the region. Rather, Washington managed its relations with European states through a set of mainly bilateral relations. Madeleine Albright once described the tools of foreign policy as including everything from kind words to cruise missiles. This book is a comparative case study of the United States use of these tools in its approaches towards Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus after the end of the Cold War. As the only remaining superpower, Washington played a key role in the formation of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, its actions and policies have received comparatively little attention. This book contributes to filling that gap by providing three in-depth case studies.

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Natalya Ryabinska calls into question the commonly held opinion that the problems with media reform and press freedom in former Soviet states merely stem from the cultural heritage of their communist (and pre-communist) past. Focusing on Ukraine, she argues that, in the period after the fall of communism, peculiar new obstacles to media independence have arisen. They include the telltale structure of media ownership, with news reporting being concentrated in the hands of politically engaged business tycoons, the fuzzy and contradictory legislation of the media realm, and the informal institutions of political interference in mass media. The book analyzes interrelationships between politics, the economy, and media in Ukraine, especially their shadowy sides guided by private interests and informal institutions. Being embedded in comparative politics and post-communist media studies, it helps to understand the nature and workings of the Ukrainian media system situated in-between democracy and authoritarianism. It offers insights into the inner logic of Ukraines political system and institutional arrangement in the post-Soviet period. Based on empirical data of 19942013, this study also highlights many of the barriers to democratic reforms that have been persisting in Ukraine since the Revolution of Dignity of 20132014.

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Despite having an underdeveloped supporting infrastructure and limited resources, Kazakhstan was the first CIS country to require IFRS in 2004 for banks, and in 2005 for all public companies. What were the economic consequences of this important reform? In the 1990s, Kazakhstans capital market reforms mirrored those of Russia due to the two countries cooperating mode driven by a high level of resource interdependence and environmental uncertainty, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet, by 2003, dependence on external donors (IMF, World Bank) took precedence over interdependence with Russia. As a result, Kazakhstan unilaterally proceeded with adoption of IFRS, while Russia backed up from this initiative. This study reports that Kazakhstans inflow of Foreign Direct Investments was the greatest among the CIS nations following the adoption of IFRS. In addition, in 200511, Kazakhstani public firms reporting quality was higher than that of the Russian public firms operating in a similar environment but exempt from the IFRS reporting requirement. Kazakhstan was the first CIS nation to repay its external debt ahead of schedule and to receive an investment grade from Moodys rating agency. The book concludes that Western-style capital market reformsin this emerging market with a not-so-distant communist pasthad significantly positive outcomes.

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In this timely book, the authors provide a detailed analysis of Russia's national interests in the Arctic region. They assess Russia's domestic discourse on the High North's role in the system of national priorities as well as of Moscow's bi- and multilateral relations with major regional players, energy, environmental, socio-cultural, and military policies in the Arctic. In contrast to the internationally wide-spread stereotype of Russia as a revisionist power in the High North, this book argues that Moscow tries to pursue a double-sided strategy in the region. On the one hand, Russia aims at defending her legitimate economic interests in the region. On the other hand, Moscow is open to co-operation with foreign partners that are willing to partake in exploiting the Arctic natural resources. The general conclusion is that in the foreseeable future Moscow's strategy in the region will be predictable and pragmatic rather than aggressive or spontaneous. The authors argue that in order to consolidate the soft power pattern of Russia's behavior a proper international environment in the Arctic should be created by common efforts. Other regional players should demonstrate their responsibility and willingness to solve existing and potential problems on the basis of international law.

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This timely book offers a fresh perspective on the issue of contemporary migratory labor, otkhodnichestvo, in Russia-the temporary departure of inhabitants from small towns and villages for short-term jobs in the major cities of Russia. Although otkhodnichestvo is a mass phenomenon, it is not reflected in official economic statistics. Based on numerous interviews with otkhodniks and local experts, this stunningly original work focuses on the central and northern regions of European Russia. The authors draw a social portrait of the contemporary otkhodnik and offer a sociological assessment of the economic and political status these 'wandering workers' live with.

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This timely book offers an integrative and critical approach to the conceptualization of diversity of social ties in contemporary urban migrant populations. It explores the informal relationships of migrants in London and how the construction and the dynamics of their social ties function as a part of urban sociality within the super-diversity of London. Based on the results of a qualitative study of Russian-speaking migrants, it targets the four main themes of transnationalism, ethnicity, cosmopolitanization, and friendship. Acknowledging the complexity of the ways in which contemporary migrants rely on social relationships, the author argues that this complexity cannot be fully grasped by theories of transnationalism or explanations of ethnic communities alone. Instead, one can gather a closer understanding of migrant sociality when adding the analysis of informal relationships in different locations and with different subjects. This book suggests that friendship should be seen as an important concept for all research on migrant social connections.

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The so-called Democratic Antifascist Youth Movement "Nashi" represents a crucial case of a post-Orange government-organised formation whose values have broad support in Russian society. Yet, at the same time, in view of the movement's public scandals, Nashi was also a phenomenon bringing to the fore public reluctance to accept all implications of Putin's new system. The Russian people's relatively widespread support for his patriotic policies and conservative values has been evident, but this support is not easily extended to political actors aligned to these values. Using discourse analysis, this book identifies socio-political factors that created obstacles to Nashi's communication strategies. The book understands Nashi as anticipating an "ideal youth" within the framework of official national identity politics and as an attempt to mobilise largely apolitical youngsters in support of the powers that be. It demonstrates how Nashi's ambivalent societal position was the result of a failed attempt to reconcile incompatible communicative demands of the authoritarian state and apolitical young.

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This book analyses the dubious role of the so-called Democratic Antifascist Youth Movement 'Nashi' in contemporary Russia. Part and parcel of the Putinist project of political stabilisation, Nashi dominates state-sponsored youth politics in Russia, communicating demands from official discourse to a young audience. Idealising the past, present, and future of Putin's Russia, Nashi mobilised young Russians through its emotional appeal, skilful use of symbolic politics and the promise for professional self-realisation. However, the movement's impact remains limited -- mostly due to its internal contradictions. Based on original and meticulous research, Ivo Mijnssen skilfully picks apart the dynamics underlying Nashi's influence and furthers a deeper understanding of state-sponsored youth politics in early 21st century Russia.

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Remembering Diversity in East-Central European Cityscapes. Based on up-to-date field material, this issue focuses on the palimpsest-like environments of East-Central European borderland cities. The present shapes and contents of these urban environments derive from combinations of cultural continuities and political ruptures, present-day heritage industries and collective memories about the contentious past, expressive material forms and less conspicuous meaning-making activities of human actors; they evolve from perpetual tensions between the choices of the present and the weight of the past. The contributors address a set of key questions: What is specific about the transnationalisation of memory in these urban public spaces? What are the political rationales and ramifications of the different approaches taken to the legacies of perished population groups in different cities? How do these approaches relate to European dimensions of memory and the "European vector" of identity-making of the contemporary urban populations?

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Featuring a special section on Identity Clashes: Russian and Ukrainian Debates on Culture, History, and Politics. This issue's special section explores the discursive gaps, tensions, and ruptures between Ukrainian and Russian narratives of national identity. It gives the floor to Russian and Ukrainian authors with a view to enabling analytical comparisons between the dominant narratives in the two countries, including their cultural, historical, and political dimensions. This juxtaposition of Russian and Ukrainian insights is aimed at deepening our understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

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This volume deals with one of the most understudied aspects of everyday life in Russian society. Its main heroes are the providers of goods and services to whom people turn for healthcare instead of official medical institutions. A wide range of agents is describedfrom network marketing companies to 'folk' journals on health as well as healers, complementary medicine specialists, and religious organizations. Krasheninnikovas book is based on rich empirical observations and avoids both positive and critical assessment of the analyzed phenomena. Her investigation pays particular attention to the legal, social, and economic status of informal healthcare providers. She demonstrates that these agents tend to flourish in bigger towns rather than in small settlements, where public healthcare is lacking. The study reveals the important role of institutions that are generally not related to alternative medicine, such as pharmacies, libraries, and church shops. The result is a vivid and thorough introduction to the world of self-medication and alternative healing in contemporary Russia. A special emphasis was made on the flexibility of boundaries between formal and informal healthcare due to the evolution of rules and regulations.

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This astonishing book explores the delusional imaginings of Russia's past by the pseudo-scientific 'Alternative History' movement. Despite the chaotic collapse of two empires in the last century, Russia's glorious imperial past continues to inspire millions. The lively movement of 'Alternative History', diligently re-writing Russia's past and 'rediscovering' its hidden greatness, has been growing dramatically since the collapse of Communism in 1991. Virtually unknown in the West, these pseudo-historians have published best-selling books, attracted widespread media attention, and are a prominent voice in Internet discussions about Russian and world history. Alternative History claims that Russia is much older than Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome; that the medieval Mongol Empire was in fact a Slav-Turk world empire; and that, in the twentieth century, duplicitous foreign powers stabbed Russia in the back and stole its empire. For its followers the key to Russia's greatness in the future lies in ensuring that Russians understand the true wealth of their past. Alternative history has become a popular therapy for Russians still coming to terms with the reality of Post-Soviet life. It is one of the forces shaping a new Russian nationalism and an important factor in the geopolitics of the twenty-first century.

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Special Section: Multilingualism in Ukraine. Rory Finnin, Ivan Kozachenko: Introduction: Ukraines Multilingualism. Taras Koznarsky: The Languages and Tongues of Mykola Markevych. Myroslav Shkandrij: Channel Switching: Language Change and the Conversion Trope in Modern Ukrainian Literature. Laada Bilaniuk: Linguistic Conversion in Ukraine: Nation-Building on the Self. Vitaly Chernetsky: Ukrainian Cinema and the Challenges of Multilingualism: From the 1930s to the Present. Iryna Shuvalova: Multilingualism in the Songs of the War in Donbas. Olenka Bilash: Multilingualism in the Academy: Language Dynamics in Ukraines Higher Education Institutions. Alina Zubkovych: Language Use among Crimean Tatars in Ukraine: Context and Practice. Special Section: Issues in the History and Memory of the OUN III. Andreas Umland, Yuliya Yurchuk: Introduction: The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and European Fascism During World War II. Kai Struve: The OUN(b), the Germans, and Anti-Jewish Violence in Eastern Galicia during Summer 1941. Yuri Radchenko: The Biography of the OUN(m) Activist Oleksa Babii in the Light of His Memoirs on Escaping Execution (1942). Tomislav Dulić, Goran Miljan: The Ustaas and Fascism: Abolitionism, Revolution, and Ideology (192942).

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Special Sections: Remembering Diversity in East-Central European Cityscapes and Russias Annexation of Crimea I. Based on up-to-date field material, this issuefocuses onthe palimpsest-like environments of East-Central European borderland cities. The present shapes and contents of these urban environments derive from combinations of cultural continuities and political ruptures, present-day heritage industries and collective memories about the contentious past, expressive material forms and less conspicuous meaning-making activities of human actors; they evolve from perpetual tensions between the choices of the present and the weight of the past. The contributors address a set of key questions: What is specific about the transnationalization of memory in these urban public spaces? What are the political rationales and ramifications of the different approaches taken to the legacies of perished population groups in different cities? How do these approaches relate to European dimensions of memory and the European vector of identity-making of the contemporary urban populations?

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This innovative book offers a fresh perspective on the national work culture of Russia and the substantial role foreign institutional and cultural impact has had in shaping it. Russia's contemporary work culture is understood as a national system supplemented by new values and attitudes that have been adopted through the mediation of foreign individuals and corporations or in response to the challenges of Western competition. It is argued that the foreign factor triggers change in the landscape of Russia's work culture, the scope of which depends on the type of influence. However, there is a certain core of the work culture that remains resistant to any external impact.

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The third volume of Aspects of the Orange Revolution complements the essays of the first two collections providing further historical background on, and analytical insight into, the events at Kyiv in late 2004. Its seven contributions by both established and younger specialists range from electoral statistics to musicology, and deal with, among other issues, such questions as: Why had blatant election fraud not generated mass protest before 2004, but, in that year, did? How was Viktor Yushchenko able to collect enough votes to defeat the establishment candidate Viktor Yanukovych, and become the new President of a socially, geographically and culturally divided country? How was it possible to prevent large-scale violence, and which role did the judiciary play during the quasi-revolutionary events in autumn-winter 2004? What legal foundations and court decisions made the repetition of the second round of the presidential elections possible? Which campaign instruments, and political 'technologies' were applied by various domestic and foreign actors to activate the Ukrainian population? How did the internet and music become factors in the emergence of mass protests involving hundreds of thousands of people? To which degree and how did external influences affect the Orange Revolution? Erik S Herron, Paul E Johnson, Dominique Arel, Ivan Katchanovski, Ralph S Clem, Peter R Craumer, Hartmut Rank, Stephan Heidenhain, Adriana Helbig and Andrew Wilson present a multifarious panorama of the origins and dynamics of the processes that changed the nature of political and civic life during and between the three rounds of Ukraine's fateful 2004 presidential elections.

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The fourth volume of Aspects of the Orange Revolution continues the previous volume's discussion on the impact of foreign actors on Ukrainian politics. It provides both scholarly analyses and first-hand accounts. The collection not only investigates, but also gives voice to, some of those involved in the events of 2004. While most of the volume's contributors have an academic background, some of them report here from the perspective of official election or informal participant observers of the three rounds of the Ukrainian presidential elections. Part One juxtaposes some contrasting views on how far Russia's and the West's various interests, activities and tools influencing the Orange Revolution were comparable to each other, and adequate given the circumstances. Part Two presents individual reports by a number of international election observers who were following the campaign and voting in various parts of Ukraine in 2004. Part Three presents three additional on-the-ground observations focusing solely on the notorious electoral district No. 100 of Kirovohrad Oblast. The contributions by Andreas Umland, Iris Kempe, Iryna Solonenko, Vladimir Frolov, Valentin Yakushik, Matthias Brucker, Jake Rudnitsky, Rory Finnin, Adriana Helbig, Paul Terdal, Tatiana Terdal, Peter Wittschorek, Hans-Jörg Schmedes, Adrianna Melnyk, Ingmar Bredies, Oxana Shevel and Volodymyr Bilyk add a number of novel points of view to those presented in the previous volumes. These partly contradictory and emotional texts as well as a number of photographs document the tense atmosphere and confrontational climate within which Ukraine's second phase of post-Soviet democratisation started in 2004.

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SPECIAL SECTION: ISSUES IN THE HISTORY AND MEMORY OF THE OUN V YULIYA YURCHUK, ANDREAS UMLAND: Introduction: New Studies on the Record and Remembrance of the OUN(b) in World War II OLEKSANDR MELNYK: Ukrainian Nationalism, Soviet Power, and Legitimacy Contests in the Kyiv Region, 194144: Actors, Issues, and Interpretations PER A. RUDLING: Managing Memory in Post-Soviet Ukraine: From Scientific Marx-ism-Leninism to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, 19912019 A DEBATE ON USTASHISM, GENERIC FASCISM, AND THE OUN II Featuring contributions by OMER BARTOV, JOHN-PAUL HIMKA, SERHIY KVIT, OLEKSANDR PAHIRIA, ANDREAS UMLAND, YULIYA YURCHUK ARTICLES MISCHA GABOWITSCH: What Has Happened to Soviet War Memorials since 1989/91? An Overview IGOR ILJUSHIN: A Strong History for a Strong Nation: A Review Essay on Roman Ponomarenkos SS Galician Volunteer Regiments (194344) REVIEWS TATIANA KLEPIKOVA on Emily Channell-Justice; IVAN KURILLA on Mark Edele; ANASTASIA MITROFANOVA on Fabrizio Fenghi; THIJS KORSTEN on Krista A. Goff; ADRIEN NONJON on Robert Horvath; ROBERT F. BAUMANN on Shoshana Keller; ELISE WESTIN on Oksana Kis; STANISLAV PANIN on Keith A. Livers; MICHEL ANDERLINI on Erica Marat; JUHO KORHONEN on Aliide Naylor; NICK BAIGENT on Maya K. Peterson; AIJAN SHARSHENOVA on Peter Rollberg and Marlene Laruelle; KACPER WAŃCZYK on Adnan Vanatsever; A. K. MAGOMEDOV and A. I. EMELIANOV on Evgenii Vittenberg.

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Special Sections: Russian Foreign Policy Towards the Near Abroad and Russia's Annexiation of Crimea II. This special section deals with Russias post-Maidan foreign policy towards the so-called near abroad, or the former Soviet states. This is an important and timely topic, as Russias policy perspectives have changed dramatically since 2013/2014, as have those of its neighbours. The Kremlin today is paradoxically following an aggressive realist agenda that seeks to clearly delineate its sphere of influence in Europe and Eurasia while simultaneously attempting to promote soft-power and a historical-civilisational justification for its recent actions in Ukraine (and elsewhere). The result is an often-perplexing amalgam of policy positions that are difficult to disentangle. The contributors to this special issue are all regional specialists based either in Europe or the United States.

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Brusselss idea of a wider Europe implies that Europeanisation is not limited to EU member states. The EU can, so it claims, also exert impact beyond its borders. One of the channels of external EU influence is cooperation between Europarties and parties outside the Union. Through mutual visits and joint activities, non-EU parties become internationally socialised, i.e., are exposed to the Europarties norms as well as values, and experience the rules as well as practices that shape European party-building. What are the incentives for Europarties and non-EU parties to cooperate with each other? What kind of, and how much, impact did cooperation have on party development in post-Soviet Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine? Based on eighty interviews with party officials, international donors and academics, Maria Shagina outlines the set of motivations that trigger cooperation between Europarties and non-EU parties, analyses the impact of cooperation on party ideology, organisational structure, and inter-party behaviour in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, and explores the implications of this cooperation on the standardisation, consolidation, and democratisation of the non-EU party systems. Her findings shed light on how prestige and domestic factors impede the penetration of EU norms and values in the non-EU party structures, and point to the failures of Europarties to adequately address problems of party-development in Eastern Europe. The book reveals the ways in which cooperation with Europarties has paradoxically contributed to the ossification of the status quo and impaired the development as well as the consolidation of democracy in the three Eastern Partnership states.

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Conflict Resolution holds the promise of freeing approaches and policies with regard to politics of identity from the fatalistic grip of realism. While the conceptual literature on identity and conflicts has moved in this alternative direction, conflict resolution practice continues to rely on realist frames and acts as an unwanted auxiliary to traditional International Relations (IR). Perpetuation of conflict discourses, marginalization, and exclusion of affected populations are widespread. They are caused by the over-reliance of conflict resolution practice on the binary frames of classic IR paradigms and also by the competitive and hierarchical relationships within the field itself.Philip Gamaghelyan relies on participatory action research (PAR) and collective auto-ethnography to expose patterns of exclusion and marginalization as well as the paradoxical reproduction of conflict-promoting frames in current conflict-resolution practice applied to the Nagorno-Karabakh and Syrian crises. He builds on the work of post-modernist scholars, on reflective practice, and on discourse analysis to explore alternative and inclusive strategies with a transformative potential through reflections and actions customary for PAR.The IR discipline, that has dominated policy-making, is only one possible lens, and often a deficient one, for defining, preventing, or resolving contemporary conflicts wrapped in identity politics. Other conceptual frameworks can help to rethink our understanding of identity and conflicts and reconstruct them as performative and not static phenomena. These transformative frameworks are increasingly influential in the conflict resolution field and can be applied to policy-making.

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This in-depth analysis discloses the sources, contents, and implications of post-Soviet Russian messianism. Since its rediscovery 150 years ago, writers ranging from Western critics of Moscow's foreign policy to ardent Russian imperialists have used the concept of Moscow as the Third Rome as 'evidence' of Russia's particularism and expansionism. But for the original author of the formula of the Third Rome, the Orthodox monk Filofei of Pskov, it was a religious concept he referred to when criticizing what he saw as the apostasy of his time. This book is the first to look beyond this dichotomy. Drawing on theories of political myth and concepts of nationalism, �stbø develops a novel analytical perspective. Rather than dismissing political uses of the religious, medieval idea as 'wrong', the author analyzes the modern content and ideological function of the myth of the Third Rome. Through case studies of four prominent nationalist intellectuals, Vadim Tsymburskii, Aleksandr Dugin, Nataliia Narochnitskaia and Egor Kholmogorov, the author shows how this messianic myth is used to 'reinvent' Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These writers use their own constructed image of the Russian nation to demonstrate what Russia 'should be' and its allegedly rightful place in the world. Existing in radically diverging versions, the myth of the Third Rome routinely conveys rabid anti-Westernism. At 'best', it is employed to forge a self-image of the Russians as an essentially isolationist civilization. At worst, it is used to 'explain' how the Russians are divinely elected to be the rulers of a world empire.

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Text in German. Nikolay Mitrokhins Pionierarbeit zeichnet die Geschichte der russischen Nationalisten in der Sowjetunion nach Stalins Tod und basiert in erster Linie auf den Erinnerungen ehemaliger Teilnehmer der Bewegung russischer Nationalisten sowie deren persönlichem Archivmaterial. Mitrokhin identifiziert auf Grundlage von erstmals erschlossenen Primärquellen eine "russische Partei" in der Nachkriegs-UdSSR - ein Phänomen, dass über viele Jahrzehnte der Sowjetologie verborgen geblieben ist. Insbesondere werden die Kontakte russischer Nationalisten zum ZK der KPdSU und zum Komsomol sowie das Problem des Antisemitismus im Partei- und Staatsapparat während der Stagnationsperiode ausführlich beleuchtet. Weiterhin untersucht Mitrokhin die Verbindungen russischer Nationalisten mit Gleichgesinnten in der Dissidentenbewegung sowie der Russisch-Orthodoxen Kirche.

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The five chapters contained in this volume focus on the complex and tumultuous events occurring in Russia during the five months from May through September 1999. They sparked the Russian invasion of Chechnya on 1 October and vaulted a previously unknown former KGB agent into the post of Russian prime minister and, ultimately, president. The five chapters are devoted to: The intense political struggle taking place in Russia between May and August of 1999, culminating in an incursion by armed Islamic separatists into the Republic of Dagestan. Two Moscow terrorist bombings of 9 and 13 September 1999, claiming the lives of 224 Muscovites and preparing the psychological and political ground for a full-blown invasion of Chechnya. The so-called Ryazan Incident of 22 September 1999, when eyewitnesses observed officers of the FSB special forces placing a live bomb in the basement of an apartment building in the town of Rzayan. The detonation of a powerful truck bomb outside of an apartment house in Buinaksk, Dagestan, on 4 September 1999, which took the lives of fifty-eight innocent victims. The explosion on 16 September 1999 of a truck bomb in the city of Volgdonsk in southern Russia, which killed eighteen persons and seriously wounded eighty-nine.

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In the opinion of some historians the era of fascism ended with the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler. Yet the debate about its nature as a historical phenomenon and its value as a term of historical analysis continues to rage with ever greater intensity, each major attempt to resolve it producing different patterns of support, dissent, and even hostility, from academic colleagues. Nevertheless, a number of developments since 1945 not only complicate the methodological and definitional issues even further, but make it ever more desirable that politicians, journalists, lawyers, and the general public can turn to "experts" for a heuristically useful and broadly consensual definition of the term. These developments include: the emergence of a highly prolific European New Right, the rise of radical right populist parties, the flourishing of ultra-nationalist movements in the former Soviet empire, the radicalization of some currents of Islam and Hinduism into potent political forces, and the upsurge of religious terrorism. Most monographs and articles attempting to establish what is meant by fascism are written from a unilateral authoritative perspective, and the intense academic controversy the term provokes has to be gleaned from reviews and conference discussions. The uniqueness of this book is that it provides exceptional insights into the cut-and-thrust of the controversy as it unfolds on numerous fronts simultaneously, clarifying salient points of difference and moving towards some degree of consensus. Twenty-nine established academics were invited to engage with an article by Roger Griffin, one of the most influential theorists in the study of generic fascism in the Anglophone world. The resulting debate progressed through two 'rounds' of critique and reply, forming a fascinating patchwork of consensus and sometimes heated disagreement. In a spin-off from the original discussion of Griffin's concept of fascism, a second exchange documented here focuses on the issue of fascist ideology in contemporary Russia. This collection is essential reading for all those who realize the need to provide the term 'fascism' with theoretical rigor, analytical precision, and empirical content despite the complex issues it raises, and for any specialist who wants to participate in fascist studies within an international forum of expertise. The book will change the way in which historians and political scientists think about fascism, and make the debate about the threat it poses to infant democracies like Russia more incisive not just for academics, but for politicians, journalists, and the wider public.

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Reports by international governmental and non-governmental organisations on the 2004 presidential elections in Ukraine constituted a significant factor in generating, facilitating and completing the Orange Revolution. Ukrainian civil society, mass media, courts and political parties were the main driving force behind the popular uprising that returned Ukraine to the path of democratisation it had embarked on in 1991. Yet, the unambiguous stance and political weight of such institutions as the EU, PACE, NATO, and, above all, OSCE played their role too. The democratic movement benefited from the spectre of international isolation and stigmatisation of the Ukrainian state had President Leonid Kuchma decided to prevent a repetition of the second round of the voting. The volume collects not all, but some of the most widely discussed reports, including English translations of selected sections of the three reports produced by the CIS International Observers Mission. The latter as well as a report by an Israeli institute depart from the assessments of the other organisations represented here, allowing for comparison of diverging evaluations of the same events. The volume assembles full or excerpted official reports of the International Republican Institute, Tel Aviv Institute for the Countries of Eastern Europe and CIS, European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and Commonwealth of Independent States. Contributions by Jevgen Shapoval and Roman Kupchinsky introduce and conclude the collection.

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This book is a comprehensive study of the social roots of citizen raising in contemporary Russia. It traces the development of governmental patriotic programs in recent decades, discusses how the Soviet past and political traditions influence todays system of patriotism formation, and presents numerous examples illustrating real-life processes in current patriotic education. While the topics of patriotism and patriotic education are highly politicised, this study approaches them from a sociological perspective. It identifies the basic model of patriotic education as a fairly stable structure born of the values and attitudes of different agents: teachers, school administrators, and civil servants. Patriotic education in Russia is shown as a particular example of how a political idea can lead to the formation of social structures, and how, in time, those social structures can lead to the restoration of the original political idea.

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This book illustrates why and how informality in governance is not necessarily transitory or temporary, but a constant in most systems of the world. The difference between various administrative structures is not whether informality is present or not, but where, in which areas, it is located. The essays gathered in this volume demonstrate that, in some cases, informal mechanisms are self-protective, while, in others, they are perceived as normal responses and a set of tactics for individuals, classes, and communities to respond to unusual demands. Where expectations of the state, a company, or some commission are too far from citizens' existing models of normative behaviour, informal behaviour continues to thrive. Indeed, new tactics are adopted in order to cope with disjunctions between theory and reality as well as to serve as contrasts to values imposed by a centre of power, such as a central state, a city administration, or the management board of a large company. The focus of the papers contained in this book is two-fold and rests on an analysis of phenomena manifesting themselves "beyond" and "in spite of" the state. The first part deals with areas where the state is not always, or only marginally, active whilst the second analyses activities performed in conflict with state regulations (ie: behaviour often studied from a criminal and legal standpoint).

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This double special issue investigates the experiences of Soviet Afghan veterans and the ongoing impact of the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-89); and the new and reconstituted narratives of martyrdom that have been emerging in connection with 20th-century history and memory in the post-socialist world. The JOURNAL OF SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET POLITICS AND SOCIETY (JSPPS) is a new bi-annual companion journal to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) book series (founded 2004 and edited by Andreas Umland, Dr. phil., PhD). Guest editors: Felix Ackermann (European Humanities University); Michael Galbas (Konstanz University); Uilleam Blacker (UCL)

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More than 20 years have passed since the introduction of the Universal Character Set. However, legacy applications still cannot even render German umlauts correctly. Part of this problem is a hidden political agenda: Consciously or unconsciously, patterns of the Cold War are continued in the interaction between Western and Eastern European languages. This book examines the current use of diacritical marks in Western Europe, such as the use of names from Slavic languages in electronic data processing systems. The role of the media as multiplier receives particular attention, with most error examples taken from actual media coverage. Considering international, EU, and national law and referring to landmark court decisions, Kappenberg answers the question: 'Is there a right to diacritical marks in people's names?' This is followed by a description of current practice in several European countries. Finally, Setting Signs for Europe answers the question how in the framework of the EU's multilingualism policy, effective approaches can be created to raise awareness among software vendors, the media, government agencies, and individuals regarding the correct handling of diacritics. Kappenberg also assesses the use of diacritics as a style element and offers an improved input method for diacritics.

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