From Restricted to Digital Fieldwork

On February 25, 2022, Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl power plant after continuous fighting within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Continual events occurred in the month of March, which raised the risk of potential contamination of previously uncontaminated areas and the potential for impacts on human and environmental health. The disruption of war has caused interruptions to normal preventive activities, and radiation monitoring sensors have been nonfunctional. Open-source intelligence can be informative when formal reporting and data are unavailable. This paper aimed to demonstrate the value of open-source intelligence in Ukraine to identify signals of potential radiological events of health significance during the Ukrainian conflict. Data were collected from search terminology for radiobiological events and acute radiation syndrome detection between February 1 and March 20, 2022, using 2 open-source intelligence (OSINT) systems, EPIWATCH and Epitweetr. Both EPIWATCH and Epitweetr identified signals of potential radiobiological events throughout Ukraine, particularly on March 4 in Kyiv, Bucha, and Chernobyl. Open-source data can provide valuable intelligence and early warning about potential radiation hazards in conditions of war, where formal reporting and mitigation may be lacking, to enable timely emergency and public health responses.

Today, open source intelligence (OSINT), i.e., information derived from publicly available sources, makes up between 80 and 90 percent of all intelligence activities carried out by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and intelligence services in the West. Developments in data mining, machine learning, visual forensics and, most importantly, the growing computing power available for commercial use, have enabled OSINT practitioners to speed up, and sometimes even automate, intelligence collection and analysis, obtaining more accurate results more quickly. As the infosphere expands to accommodate ever-increasing online presence, so does the pool of actionable OSINT. These developments raise important concerns in terms of governance, ethical, legal, and social implications (GELSI). New and crucial oversight concerns emerge alongside standard privacy concerns, as some of the more advanced data analysis tools require little to no supervision. This article offers a systematic review of the relevant literature. It analyzes 571 publications to assess the current state of the literature on the use of AI-powered OSINT (and the development of OSINT software) as it relates to the GELSI framework, highlighting potential gaps and suggesting new research directions.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was a major exogenous shock, which greatly affected the scholarly field of Russian studies. Not only did some previous theoretical lenses and analytic approaches become outdated, but the intellectual and institutional infrastructure of scholarship in Russian studies also faced major challenges. In a sense, these changes were similar to the effects of the exogenous shock of the Soviet collapse on scholarship, albeit in the opposite direction in political terms. The article focuses on the need to search for new scholarly solutions for research into Russian politics and society amid major political, economic, and social deterioration and a high level of uncertainty. It will also critically reconsider previous achievements and shortcomings of Russian studies as well as their relevance in a post-2022 world. Some suggestions for reframing of the research agenda in Russian studies in the wake of recent developments are discussed.

Open source intelligence (OSINT) researchers utilize specialized tools to access vast amounts of data from multiple sources simultaneously. These tools, equipped with (paid) modules, allow users to tap into aggregated data sets containing commercially available information, such as location data from mobile phone users. The utilization of commercially available information from OSINT tools by intelligence and security services impacts fundamental rights and freedoms; more specifically, the right to personal data protection. Drawing from prior experience working on this topic within a Dutch oversight committee on the intelligence and security services and international developments in OSINT practice, insights are provided on this new OSINT practice and the responses of oversight authorities. Rather than advocating for a categorical ban, a more refined approach to process commercially available information from OSINT tools is suggested. Building on the work of a Dutch oversight authority and the work of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, four recommendations are provided to intelligence and security services to responsibly handle commercially available information in OSINT practices.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, experts predicted a NATO revival. The record on alliance cohesion, however, is mixed. Allies achieved consensus on some issues but not others. While some Alliance politics scholars and NATO experts assert that cohesion improved, new scholarship is needed to explain the nature of and changes in cohesion across NATO’s many issue areas. Leveraging organizational change scholarship, I argue that the extent to which an exogenous shock—here, the invasion of Ukraine—aligns with NATO’s mission can explain differences in cohesion on issue areas across three realms. To test the argument, I employ discourse analysis of high-level NATO documents, leader statements, relevant quotes from allied and NATO officials and public opinion polls (2010–2024). Findings reveal the importance of an alliance’s mission for the reconfiguration of cohesion after shock, and the study offers an alternative means for explaining the ebbs and flow of alliance cohesion.

This paper focuses on the global inequalities in academic recognition within the field of Russian Studies, focusing on the geographical dimension of citation bias. Historically, Russian Studies has been shaped primarily by Western institutions, with limited contributions from local scholars during the communist era. Despite increased participation by Russian academics in international scholarship, citation disparities persist, reflecting broader systemic inequalities in global knowledge production. Using a large dataset of publications and citations, we analyze whether an author’s country of affiliation influences citation rates, specifically examining whether papers by Russian -affiliated scholars are cited less frequently than those from other regions. Our findings align with previous research demonstrating that peripheral regions, including Russia, are consistently undercited compared to core academic hubs like North America and Europe.

One of the biggest challenges in IoT-forensics is the analysis and correlation of heterogeneous digital evidence, to enable an effective understanding of complex scenarios. This paper defines a methodology for extracting unique objects (e.g., representing users or devices) from the files of a case, defining the context of the digital investigation and increasing the knowledge progressively, using additional files from the case (e.g. network captures). The solution includes external searches using open source intelligence (OSINT) sources when needed. In order to illustrate this approach, the proposed methodology is implemented in the JSON Users and Devices analysis (JUDAS) tool, which is able to generate the context from JSON files, complete it, and show the whole context using dynamic graphs. The approach is validated using the files in an IoT-Forensic digital investigation where an important set of potential digital evidence extracted from Amazon’s Alexa Cloud is analysed.

ABSTRACTRussia's first invasion of Ukraine in 2014 marked the culmination of Russia's dissociation from the project of institutionalised pan‐European security and from the global liberal order more generally. While not denying the relevance of studying the causes of Russia's attacks on Ukraine, this study focuses on Russia's progressing dissociation from Western institutions that preceded the escalation of military tensions. Processes of dissociation—defined as the intentional distancing from the core rules and norms of institutions—occur rather often and might even become a dominant feature of world politics as deglobalisation proceeds. However, this phenomenon has rarely been tackled in academic research. What has been overlooked in the scholarly debate is the specific forms and underlying causes of dissociations from multilateral arrangements. Delving into the controversial history of Russia's drifting away from the European security regime complex after the end of the Cold War this paper demonstrates why Russia's leadership felt so estranged from the order whose creation it actively endorsed. Based on more than 30 interviews with experts of Russian foreign policy as well as Russian and Western diplomats and policymakers, this paper demonstrates how Moscow's disenchantment with European security institutions intensified as these institutions appeared in the Kremlin's eyes structurally unresponsive to evolving dynamics in Russian‐Western relations.

Two Russian Poems from Saint Petersburg and Tbilisi Alexander Skidan (bio) and Linor Goralik (bio) Translated by Kevin M. F. Platt (bio) and Ivan Sokolov (bio) "too late to scroll through news and facebook …" too late to scroll through news and facebook too late to write on personaland collective guilt too late to read hannah arendt and carl schmitt both in love with schwarzwaldtoo late to become provost of the state of emergency too late to stand on the troitsky bridge and gaze at the most beautiful city in the world too late to gaze at the ice of the most beautiful river in the world too late to go out on the ice of the most beautiful river in the world and write fuck war on it too late to raise and lower bridges too late to cry over bridges too late to build bridges too late to say too late to loved onestoo late to embrace them too late to rename the troitsky bridge as the trotsky bridge too late to sayneither peace nor war too late to say my grandma was born in poltava in 1909 too late to sayher name was trepke von trepke too late to say we are pissing our pants too late to remember valery podoroga in 2001 after getting the bely prize in that café on leteiny and him saying who have we elected not only elected but with these very hands helped gleb pavlovsky and his media outlets too late to say blockade patriotic war lydia ginzburg too late to say i warned you in 2003 caution religion caution too late to say genocide wwi turn the bayonets against imperialismas bakunin kropotkin taught and bruno schulz dreaming of maggots when he went down vinnytsia's streets to drink with arkady too late to say dehumanization mobile crematoria special operation it remains to be saidreread antigone give us back our dead i want to mourn them this precedes the polis precedes its violence and the law the law-as-violencethis is sister this is brother becoming a bottomless grave and the promise of love it's still maybe not too late to stop the mobile crematoriato bury our children [End Page 54] March 21, 2022 "A concentration camp is built like a stadium or a Grand Hotel …" Click for larger view View full resolution Linor Goralik, The Assumption of the Deserters (2022), black, gold, and red cardboard, paper, black watercolor, red acrylic, colored pencils, pen / Courtesy of the artist / linorgoralik.com A concentration camp is built like a stadium or a Grand Hotel.You need geodetic surveys,subcontractors, estimates,competitive bids—and, no doubt, a bribe or two.Any style will do, it's all leftto the imagination: Swiss style,garage style, Japanese style, a metamodernistdegree zero of cinegenicdegree zero, an intergalactic pod on the tipof the corbusier, a Ground Zero of the Grand Stylefor the strings of a state symphony orchestraon tour through the uranium mines. The architectural firm is called "Night and Fog," Monsieur Klein."Night and Fog," Monsieur Fritz von Klein. [End Page 55] March 21, 2022 Alexander Skidan Alexander Skidan is a poet, critic, essayist, and translator. He is the author of more than ten books, including, in English, Red Shifting and the pamphlet Golem Soveticus: Prigov as Brecht and Warhol in One Persona. He has been recognized with the Andrei Bely Prize and a Joseph Brodsky Fellowship. Skidan is a member of the working group "What is to be done?" and editor of the "Practice" section of New Literary Review. He lives and works in Saint Petersburg and Tbilisi, Georgia. Linor Goralik Born in 1975 in Soviet Ukraine, Linor Goralik is an artist, writer, and poet who lives in Israel and addresses Russianspeaking audiences across the world. In 2022 she began to produce a series called A Few Icons about the War, including these works after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kevin M. F. Platt Kevin M. F. Platt is a professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He works on...

Advanced extended reach drilling (ERD) and completion technologies were successfully tested in a challenging remote Russian Far East location to prove feasibility of land based development for the offshore Chayvo field. Chayvo is located 8-11 km off the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. Development plans using offshore platforms were marginally economic because of arctic design and operating conditions. Two ERD wells were drilled in a pilot program to measured depths of 9,375 m and 10,182 m. Horizontal displacements of the wells were 8,419 m and 9,246 m at a true vertical depth (TVD) of 2,613 m. These first two Chayvo ERD wells represent record wells for ExxonMobil and are currently the 7th and 4th longest ERD wells in the world. Other highlights include the first 13-5/8 in. casing installation using "mud-over-air" flotation and record coiled tubing runs. Absence of drilling data between the land-based surface location and the reservoir made planning Chayvo ERD wells difficult. ERD well design was based on a systematic planning approach through study of local Russian and worldwide geometric offset wells and application of ExxonMobil proprietary technologies (Integrated Hole Quality/Quantitative Risk Assessment). A comprehensive directional plan was developed to successfully intersect the reservoir target objective at a precise depth and location. Wells were drilled using rotary steerable systems (RSS) and polycrystalline diamond cutter (PDC) bits. Formation evaluation was achieved using logging while drilling (LWD) tools from surface to total depth (TD). Multiple challenges including tight schedules, international logistics and adverse weather conditions were overcome prior to spudding the first well. The team quickly adapted to actual well conditions (i.e. fracture gradients, wellbore stability, and high torque) while drilling. The now proven feasibility of ERD technology at this location will help make a once marginal "high-cost" project economic.

This study examines the dialogue between foreign and Russian translation theorists in Russian translation studies literature. The research question is approached by analyzing, firstly, the proportion of articles by foreign authors in conference proceedings, and, secondly, the sources of references – which authors and theoretical approaches from abroad are referred to. The material consists of the proceedings of the Feodorov readings conferences held in St. Petersburg from 2000 through 2009. The results of the analysis show that Russian scholars prefer referring to domestic translation theorists. The cited foreign scholars mainly include eminent translation theorists (Gideon Toury, Theo Hermans, Mona Baker, etc.). Some citations are related to the lack of research in a particular field in Russia, e.g. gender studies. Reference literature from foreign sources more often deals with linguistics, lexicography and literary or cultural research than with translation theory. As far as the origins of the proceeding contributions are concerned, the international dialogue is represented mostly by researchers from neighboring countries – the former Soviet Republics and countries of Eastern Europe. The largest number of contributions outside this area comes from Italy and the United States.

This article demonstrates the significance of engaging with whiteness as a key dimension of difference shaping research in multi-faceted ways. I critically reflect on a research project that included interviews with Muslim men in Rotherham, a northern English town that had experienced a child sexual exploitation crisis involving Pakistani Muslim men. It raised significant methodological and epistemological issues regarding my position in the research, as a white female researcher, and my relationships with local Pakistani Muslim men and women. I highlight the fluidity of my insider–outsider position through exploring political and ethical dilemmas involved in carrying out the research and structural and experiential aspects of researcher subjectivity. I show how being white both facilitated and obstructed the research as I steered my way through a highly sensitive set of circumstances and how engaging with whiteness is key in democratising research and shedding light on unequal power relations in knowledge production.

This paper shows how a study using a pluralistic qualitative design explored the meaning–making process taking place around repetitive self–injury. By combining three interpretative lenses (interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis and psychosocial analysis), the researchers were able to develop a rich, multi–layered understanding of one individual’s experience of the behaviour. However, the project also raised significant methodological and epistemological issues. In the present review, we hope to illustrate the value of qualitative pluralism as a mixed methods approach enabling researchers and scientist-practitioners to engage more deeply with the subjective meanings attached to severe emotional and behavioural difficulties.

This paper examines the evolving roles of non-state actors in cyberspace during contemporary conflicts, with a focus on the Russia-Ukraine war. It analyses how digital technologies have transformed warfare, introducing new actors and reshaping traditional roles. The paper explores five key areas: the private sector’s critical role in owning and managing digital infrastructure; social media platforms as battlegrounds for information warfare; the rise of open-source intelligence (OSINT); state-sponsored hackers blurring lines between governmental and criminal activities; and the emergence of hacktivist groups. The analysis highlights how these developments blur traditional boundaries between civilian and military spheres, peace and war, challenging established legal and diplomatic frameworks. The paper argues that the involvement of non-state actors in cyberspace presents both opportunities and challenges for international security and diplomacy.

122 SEER, 82, I, 2004 more uncertainmarket-basedsystem.The economic securityand certaintyof the past has been replacedby insecurityin which there are clear winners and losers. Income inequality has widened and the losers have had most to fear. Consistentevidence showsthat it is the young and the educatedwho aremore positive and adaptable,with fewerfearsthan the elderlyand the lesseducated who have found it harder to adjust. Apart from economic worries about poverty and especiallythe threatof unemployment, other qualityof life issues are surveyedsuch as health, environmentand crimeplus politicalchange and fearsabout governmentsand changing foreignthreats. Each country also has its own specificconcerns, more so in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine, in comparison with the Czech Republic, Poland and Lithuania.The formergroupgenerallyfaredworseeconomically astheUSSR dissolved and they also suffered significantly from poor health, lower life expectancy and concern about environmental degradation. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor was a particular source of fear there. Nevertheless, even between the countrieswhich comprisethe formerUSSR therearedifferences, andBelaruswhich haschangedleasthasgeneratedlessfearanddissatisfaction. The main problem seems to be when rapid change occurs, expectations are not fulfilledand people are overwhelmedby a multiplicityof new problems. Each national chapter follows a similar pattern and generally strikesthe rightbalance between statisticalresults(oftenillustratedin tables),description and explanation. The book also includes two chapters which cover the fears of Russian immigrants in America and Israel. These provide original comparative material which fits within the frameworkof the book, but also provides valuable information on the migration processperse.It might have been better to move the final case study on Israel to chapter nine, dropping the American case essay which seems to add little, since it covers general problems and notjust fears.The conclusion to the book by the two editors is thoughtful;for example, on rational/irrational fears and comparing big and smallcountries.Whetherreferenceto Bulgariain thisconclusion is considered helpfuldepends upon readers'interestin particularcountries.To some degree the book reflects the American editors' availabilityof material and a future edition based on new data might consider adding some other Central and EastEuropeancountries. Overallthisis a briefbutwell edited book, with few mistakesand even those prove fortuitous when saying 'that Polls[sic] and Russians do not see each othervery favourably'(p. 63). BradfordCentreforInternational Development J. HARROP University ofBradford Williams, Kieran and Deletant, Dennis. Security Intelligence Services in New Democracies. TheCzech Republic, Slovakia andRomania. Studiesin Russia and East Europe. Palgrave, Basingstoke and New York, 2001. iX + 29I Pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Index. [47.50. THIS is an excellent volume. It representssolid researchby scholarswho have worked independently, yet come together to produce a fine volume, which REVIEWS 123 could not have been bettered. While Deletant has a long establishedrecord for his work on Romania, dating back to the Communist era and Nicolai Ceau?escu's Securitate, the excellent Kieran Williams is venturing into relativelynew territory.Together, they explore the territorywith the greatest accomplishment.The authorshave traced the developments surroundingthe security apparatusesunder consideration in some detail using open sources and have produced a strong empirical and comparative study of Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakiaand theirCommunist antecedents. There is no equivalentbook, so it seems almostpointlessto saythatthisbook is the best of its kind but its kind should be understood to be a broader class than merely books on these formerCommunist countries'securityand intelligence services. It is an excellent book as a study of Communist and former Communist countries and it is an excellent book as a study of security and intelligence services.Indeed, one of its notable strengthsis the fine discussion given to the use of the terms 'security' and 'intelligence.' The conceptual approach here shows understandingandjudgement. These passagescould or shouldbe thebasisforseriousdiscussionon allcoursesdealingwithintelligence and securityaffairs not because their intrinsicquality and strength makes them right,butbecause theyaddressallthe rightangles.Not onlyis thevolume intellectuallysharp,but it is also compelling and contemporary.In particular, it is to the authors' credit that developments such as weak links in the newly enlarged NATO are covered (for example, there was a problem during the Kosovo operations in I999, when Pragueproved to be an embarrassmentby giving away vital information on those operations, on Iraq and on personnel from other countries notably the UK). No sooner had the Czech Republic joined the Alliance than it was demonstrating precisely the problems faced in former Communist countries in making the transition to democracy and to NATO...