post-Soviet Region Research Articles

International Hierarchy and Regional Security in the Post-Soviet Region: Crises in Ukraine and Georgia

Soguk Savasin bitiminden yirmi bes yil gecmesine ragmen, eski Sovyet ulkeleri, isgal ve askeri catismalar da dahil olmak uzere bircok ic ve dis problemle ugrasmaktadir. Rusya Federasyonu’nun 1996 oncesi donemde eski Sovyet cografyasinda ortaya cikan askeri catismalar ve ic savaslar karsisinda izledigi mudahaleci politika guvenlige katkida bulunurken; 2008 ve 2013’de meydana gelen krizlere mudahalesi sorunlarin daha da derinlesmesine sebep olmustur. Bu calisma Rusya Federasyonu’nun eski Sovyetler Birligi ulkelerindeki catismalar karsisinda birbirinden farkli politikalar izlemesinin nedenlerini konu almaktadir. Bu soru, Rusya’nin Gurcistan ve Ukrayna ile olan hiyerarsik iliskilerinin olusum ve degisim sureci incelenerek cevaplandirilmaktadir. Bu uc devlet arasinda hiyerarsik iliskilerin olusum surecinin incelenmesi icin askeri alanda (askeri guclerin konuslandirilmasi, egemen guc tarafindan kurulan bir ittifaka uyelik, baska bir ittifaka uyelik hedefinin olmasi, askeri techizat temini, askeri yardim alinmasi) ve ekonomik iliskilerde (dis ticarette egemen devlete bagimlilik, egemen devlet tarafindan kurulan ekonomik birlige uye olma, ekonomik yardim alinmasi ve egemen devletin para birimi karsisinda izlenen para politikalari) olmak uzere yirmi iki yillik surecte (1992-2014) on gosterge toplamda iki yuz yirmi gostergeye bakilmistir. Bu gostergelere gore hiyerarsik iliskiler uc gruba ayrilmistir: yuksek dereceli hiyerarsi, dusuk dereceli hiyerarsi ve anarsik hiyerarsi. Ukrayna ve Gurcistan’da ilk iki donemde basa gelen liderler ve izledikleri politikalar ve Rusya Federasyonu’nun bu politikalara tepkisiyle farkli hiyerarsik iliskiler arasindaki baglanti ortaya konmustur. Bu calismada, Rusya’nin bu iki ulke ile olan hiyerarsik iliskilerinin degismesi, oncellikle Rusya’nin bu iki devlet karsinda, karsilikli kabul gormus egemen pozisyonunun ve ikinci olarak da hakim devlet ile ona bagimli ulkeler arasindaki olmasi gereken sosyal sozlesmenin sorgulanmasi bu ulkelerdeki ic savaslarda Rusya’nin farkli politikalar izlemesinin temel nedeni oldugu iddia edilmektedir. Rusya’nin bu ulkelere yaptigi mudahalelerden sonra degisik bir duzenleyici ilke- anarsik hiyerarsi ile farkli bir bolgesel duzen olusmustur. Bu duzen icerisinde Rusya bu ulkelerin guvenligini ikili yonde etkilemektedir: Kendine bagli yeni ortaklarinin guvenliklerini garanti altina alirken, ayni zamanda eski bagimli ulkelerin guvenliklerini tehdit etmektedir. Boylece bu calisma ile egemen bir ulkenin etki alanini barindiran bolgelerdeki guvenlik dinamikleri tartisilmis; hakim ve egemen devletin bolgesel guvenligini arttiran ya da zarar veren politikalar izleyip izleyemeyecegini belirlemede, egemen devletin kendine bagli devletler karsisindaki konumu (egemen devlet ile kendine bagli devletler arasindaki hiyerarsik iliskilerin derecesi ve yogunlugu), siyasal seckinlerindeki degisiklikler de dahil olmak uzere bagimli ulkelerdeki ic gelismeler ve egemen devlete karsi diger buyuk guclerin konumlari olmak uzere birbiriyle iliskili uc faktorun rol oynadigi sonucuna varilmistir.

War Memories and Online Encyclopedias

This article examines how digital media interact with collective memories and teaching practices by exploring a selection of Wikipedia articles that describe the capture of Lviv by the Germans on 30 June 1941. This event constitutes an important episode in the history of Ukraine and a complex case of violence that produced several controversies concerning the national historiographies of the Second World War in the post-Soviet region. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative metrics, this article investigates how the event is represented in different language versions of Wikipedia and assesses what kind of memory is produced by each of them.

Popular Punitiveness? Punishment and Attitudes to Law in Post-Soviet Georgia

Georgia is the only country in the post-Soviet region where incarceration rates significantly grew in the 2000s. Then in 2013, the prison population was halved through a mass amnesty. Did this punitiveness and its sudden relaxation after 2012 impact attitudes to the law? We find that these attitudes remained negative regardless of levels of punitiveness. Furthermore, the outcomes of sentencing may be less important than procedures leading to sentencing. Procedural justice during both punitiveness and liberalisation was not assured. This may explain the persistence of negative attitudes to law. The Georgian case shows that politically-driven punitive turns or mass amnesties are unlikely to solve the problem of legal nihilism in the region.

Eurasian Economic Union: a challenge for EU policy towards Kazakhstan

As a top trading partner and the foreign investor in Kazakhstan, attempting to deepen bilateral relations and review its previous policy towards Kazakhstan and the post-Soviet Central Asian region (The post-Soviet Central Asian region unites five former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) as a whole, the European Union is facing up to a new set of internal and external conditions which affects its approach to the East. One of the crucial determinants taken into account in terms of the European Union policy towards its Kazakh partner derives from the more advanced processes of Eurasian integration created by the Russian Federation. The question is whether the EU will be able to compete or complement the consistent steps of the Russian integration project and whether the EU should move beyond a trade and investment approach and place emphasis on the other strategic areas? The main research objective concentrates on the identification and examination of the relationship between political decisions and the economic ties of Kazakhstan and its main strategic partners. Considering the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine and Central Asia, the new ‘EU-Kazakhstan Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement’ will develop more areas targeted at security and stabilization issues. However, the top-down initiatives are only the legal basis of sectorial cooperation, and the intensification of bilateral relations comes from bottom-up cooperation and people-to-people contacts.

Overlap with contestation? Comparing norms and policies of regional organizations in the post-Soviet space

ABSTRACTTwo sets of regional organizations contribute to the overlapping regionalism in the former Soviet space. On one side we find the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe (COE), whose original ‘Cold War agenda’ was to enhance the political dialogue across the East–West divide in Europe. On the other side is a kaleidoscopic group of organizations which have been established in the framework of (re-)emerging ambitions of regional leadership, if not hegemony, whose creation has been often interpreted in ‘reactive’ terms, to counterbalance Western influences and projects in the Eurasian geopolitical theatre. The article aims at conceptualizing these regional overlaps, focusing on drivers and effects in terms of regional governance in the post-Soviet region. The authors investigate the similarities and contradictions among four organizations (OSCE, COE, Commonwealth of Independent States and Shanghai Cooperation Organization) from the two different organizational sets, regarding leading norms and policies that address both human and security dimensions.

Towards a Model Explaining the Political (In)stability and Variety of Regimes in the Post-Soviet Region

The article examines the conditions of political stability and different regime trajectories in the post-Soviet region. The impact of political, socioeconomic, and cultural factors is explored to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for political stability and democracy, as well as their relationship with each other. Applying fuzzy set comparative analysis, this article demonstrates the significance of social inclusion in political stability, although it cannot confirm any causality between political stability and democracy in the post-Soviet region. In terms of the necessary conditions for democracy, only a democratic political culture is significant; while both democratic political cultureandthe absence of a strong economic dependence on natural resources are sufficient conditions for democracy in the region.

СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЕ МИГРАЦИОННЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ НА ПОСТСОВЕТСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ: АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ВОПРОСЫ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ РАЗВИТИЯ

Comparative migration is an actively developing research area that is situated at the intersection of various disciplines and national research traditions. The demand for a comparative historical analysis of migration processes is determined by the variety of reasons: intensification of human mobility in the modern world, changes in understanding of citizenship. The collapse of the USSR generated new visions and new perspectives in migration studies. The political and ethnic borders coupled with regional variety and complex migration processes make up the post-Soviet region as one of the most challenging for comparative migration studies. Moreover, despite the availability of various traditions of migration analysis in Russia, this region remains theoretically and empirically undiscovered in terms of comparative research. The materials presented in this special issue serve to fill in this gap. The objective of an Introductory piece to the special issue of the Public Opinion Monitor (MOM) Journal that is one of the first attempts in Russian literature to present comparative migration studies dealing with the post-Soviet societies has two foci. The first is to present the idea of comparative migration studies as it is developed in the West and to make a point of proposing such a tradition to Russian social sciences. The second is to help the reader to look at and take her/his bearings in the materials and studies presented in the volume. Three particular features of the volume have to be underlined. First, in terms of theoretical and methodological foundations materials are oriented toward American rather than European tradition of comparative migration studies. Second, ethnic (national) and racial facets as they are fostered in current migration studies in the West are also debated in the volume. Third, the issue includes publications discussing transnational migration — a relatively new phenomenon under review in Russian literature. Finally, this Special Issue of the «MOM» was envisaged as an invitation to further research and as a lead-in to the detailed discussions about comparative migration studies rather than a compendium of truths and finalized answers on the subject.

A Comparative Cyberconflict Analysis of Digital Activism Across Post-Soviet Countries

This article analyses digital activism comparatively in relation to three Post-Soviet regions: Russian/anti-Russian in Crimea and online political deliberation in Belarus, in juxtaposition to Estonia’s digital governance approach. The authors show that in civil societies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, cultural forms of digital activism, such as internet memes, thrive and produce and reproduce effective forms of political deliberation. In contrast to Estonia, in authoritarian regimes actual massive mobilization and protest is forbidden, or is severely punished with activists imprisoned, persecuted or murdered by the state. This is consistent with use of cultural forms of digital activism in countries where protest is illegal and political deliberation is restricted in government-controlled or oligarchic media. Humorous political commentary might be tolerated online to avoid mobilization and decompress dissent and resistance, yet remaining strictly within censorship and surveillance apparatuses. The authors’ research affirms the potential of internet memes in addressing apolitical crowds, infiltrating casual conversations and providing symbolic manifestation to resistant debates. Yet, the virtuality of the protest undermines its consistency and impact on offline political deliberation. Without knowing each other beyond social media, the participants are unlikely to form robust organisational structures and mobilise for activism offline.

The Diffusion of Human Trafficking Policies in the Post-Soviet Region: A Comparative Analysis of Policy Adoption in Ukraine, Latvia, and Russia

This paper analyzes how human trafficking policies diffused in the post-Soviet region. By adapting the diffusion of innovation framework to fit the international context, I examine whether human trafficking adoptions in the post-Soviet region were due to internal determinants and/or diffusion effects. A comparison of Russia, Latvia, and Ukraine found that internal determinants such as state commitment to human trafficking policy and interest group strength were more important to policy adoption than external pressures from the international community while state capacity and bureaucratic restructuring impeded policy adoption. I argue that policymaking, even in authoritarian regimes, is more nuanced than blind compliance with international treaties and shows that interest groups and policy entrepreneurs work within the constraints of national policymaking to adopt human trafficking policies.

Keeping alive the “Imaginary West” in post-Soviet countries

Although since de-Stalinization in the 1950s, Soviet citizens have witnessed a noticeable influx of elements of western culture in their lives, their imagination of the living standards in the continuum of countries situated behind the western border was based on a usually distorted understanding of certain values and images of that region. Such an imagination encouraged people to engage with practices that, non-existing or marginal in the west, came to be associated with an allegedly better life existent there. The material evidence of such a form of imagination was visible in simple everyday practices, like home decoration, listening to music, and procurement of clothing. Regular imitation of Western life, also known as practicing Imaginary West, defined some markers of a late Soviet generation’s identity. The analysis of such a cultural construct became crucial for the better understanding of identity processes in the Soviet and then post-Soviet region. Scholars, who analysed how the space of the Imaginary West was developed in Soviet times, believed that practices and discourses that originated from this cultural construct were doomed to disappear with the fall of the Iron curtain. This article first of all questions whether the transformation from imaginary to real takes place and how did ordinary people experience this change? This work tries to answer these questions through the exploration of the phenomenon of Evroremont, which is a type of renovating practice, based on different interpretations of western interior designs, which started to become mainstream across the territory of the former Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990s. An analysis of 38 semi-structured interviews conducted in L’viv presents a myriad of symbolic meanings of this phenomenon and indicates why and how Evroremont could be considered a further materialization of the Imaginary West.

Hybrid Warfare or Gibridnaya Voyna?

During the last decade, ‘hybrid warfare’ has become a much used yet controversial term in professional military and political discussions. Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 its Russian counterpart, gibridnaya voyna, has also become very popular in professional military and academic discourse in Russia. Ofer Fridman explores Russian conceptual and theoretical publications and political analyses, showing that the only common ground between the two terms is the name. A grasp of the essential conceptual differences is vital in understanding contemporary political-security discourses in the post-Soviet region.

YOUTH AND YOUTH POLICY IN THE POST-SOVIET STATES

Young people as a special age category and social group are the object of studying the complex of humanities — political science, sociology, political philosophy, political psychology, cultural studies, conflict studies, etc. The need for youth research is conditioned by the formation of an actual strategy and tactics of the state youth policy, which can contribute to the increase Effectiveness of the activities of political institutions, authorities and government, to promote the dynamic development of the state Society and society. Youth policy is one of the most important factors in the modernization of the state, therefore it is important to develop tools for measuring the parameters of the systemic change of society under the influence, with the participation of emerging, developing youth organizations. The theme of the study of the problems of youth is important in connection with the activation of the use of technologies for the recruitment of youth into political organizations (party organizations), which strengthens the competitive struggle of various political forces for influencing the younger generation of citizens as potentially active citizens who are supporters or opponents of certain parties. The urgency of the study is also conditioned by the processes of building the rule of law and the development of civil society institutions. This process is impossible without overcoming the political passivity, the apolitical nature of the younger generation. Youth organizations can become an important element. The political participation of the youth of Russian society is non-systemic, moreover, a significant part of the youth is politically inactive, indifferent to political changes. Studying the mechanisms for overcoming this state, increasing the involvement of young people in the political life of society is an important not only research, but also a practical task. At the present stage of development, youth movements and organizations occupy a rather significant place in the political process. Every year the number of new organizations is growing. Young people, this is quite an impulsive mass, which is easily influenced by the authority of the leader, which impresses them. Young people, through accession to a youth organization, have the right and the opportunity to influence the political process. Youth movements and organizations are in direct relationship with the political system. Politics is not possible without properly motivated youth, youth movements and organizations, as well as the youth movement is not possible without politics, there is an important role of political organizations in the political arena. This paper examines the problems of transformation of the youth policy of the ex-USSR countries in view of political developments in the post-Soviet region and in the world. It carried out a review of mechanisms of the implementation of the youth policy amid renewed values orientation structure of the younger generation of the post-Soviet countries. Historical account of formation of youth policy in certain select countries reviewed in this article.

Specifics of the religious consciousness in the Post-Soviet socio-cultural region

Specifics of the religious consciousness in the Post-Soviet socio-cultural region

Jan Zofka. Postsowjetischer Separatismus: Die pro-russländischen Bewegungen im moldauischen Dnjestr-Tal und auf der Krim, 1989–1995 .

This excellent comparative study of pro-Russian movements in two post-Soviet regions shows once more that the post-Communist transformation, hitherto the preserve of the social sciences and “transitology,” is entering the realm of history. In Postsowjetischer Separatismus: Die pro-russländischen Bewegungen im moldauischen Dnjestr-Tal und auf der Krim, 1989–1995, Jan Zofka, who completed his doctorate at the University of Leipzig, compares two contested regions: the districts in the Dniester Valley that separated from the Republic of Moldova after a bloody civil war in 1992; and Crimea, which was eventually annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014. According to the author, the Black Sea peninsula was much more prone to separatism in the early 1990s, since it had a very long history as a territorial unit, was predominantly Russian- and not Ukrainian-speaking, and played a prominent role in the collective memory of Russians. In contrast, Transdnistria (officially Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika) was not an administrative unit before 1991 and could not build on any history (except a brief episode under Joseph Stalin) or an ethnically based separatism.

The Culture of War and Militarization within Political Orthodoxy in the Post-soviet Region

This article is focused on “Political Orthodoxy”, an ideological trend and sociocultural phenomenon with regard to its impact to militarization and justification of war from religious point of view. The author pays his attention to elaboration the idea of “Orthodox civilization” by the part of Orthodox nationalist teoreticians striving to transform Orthodoxy into “political religion”, he scrutinizes development of eschatological ideologems and war apologia that appeared alongside this process. He examines the models of mythological outlook connected with Political Orthodoxy as manifested throughout the last decade, in particular with reference to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Through the lens of the latter the author gives examples of practical embodiment of religiously influenced militaristic discourse, shows some epiphenomena (side effects), in particular, hate, aggravation of the conflicts, separation into ‘friends’ and so on.

Japan's foreign policy in the post-Soviet region (1991-2016)

This article gives an outline of conceptual foundations of Japan's political course towards the post-Soviet states and analyzes evolution of its foreign policy in the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union until Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration in the period from 1991 to 2016.As a result of conducted research the author concludes that Japan's policy in the post-Soviet region has expanded gradually from East to West and that its original strategy is still utilized by Japan's government.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, besides financial and nuclear security assistance to the region, the government of Japan focused on two main tasks, one being search of ways to resolve the dispute of the Kuril Islands - one of the most important issues of Japan's modern foreign policy, and the other one - establishing relations with Central Asian republics. The development of relationship between Japan and Central Asia was achieved by introducing the concept of "Eurasian diplomacy" and "Central Asia plus Japan" dialogue which led to further expansion of the scope of Japan's foreign policy towards the West. In 2006 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Taro Aso introduced the concept of "Arch of Freedom and Prosperity"in which Ukraine was mentioned for the first time. It is proved that the value-oriented diplomacy of Japan has deep roots and forms the basis of the policies of Japan's current administration. As for the financial assistance allocated to the region, the author emphasizes Japan's Official Development Assistance which was provided starting from1994. Inthis regard it is noted that the biggest recipient in the period from 1994 to 2014 was Uzbekistan.Further development of relations between Japan and post-Soviet states has good perspectives. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy in the region is based on the previously introduced concepts and, at the same time, is more proactive compared to Japan's past governments. Therefore, one can expect positive trends and continued success of Japan's "soft power" diplomacy in Central Asia against its non-interference in the internal affairs of its Central Asian partners. On the other hand, an issue for Japan could be Shinzo Abe's promise to resolve the dispute of the Kuril Islands and to improve relations with Russia. It is believed that Japan will continue to support Ukraine in the issue of Russia's occupation of the Crimean Peninsula which took place in 2014 and its military aggression in Eastern Ukraine, and will be forced to balance its interests in both countries.

RUSSIAN RESEARCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION SYLLABI ON POST-SOVIET SPACE: PRIORITIES IN TERMINOLOGY AND STRUCTURE OF COURSES

The article is devoted to the analysis of the key concepts used in the undergraduate and graduate courses on the post-Soviet region, of the link between these concepts and the official rhetoric based on the foreign policy documents. Major research questions of the article are: how is the international political region on the ex-Soviet space is called? Are there any subregions in this region? Is more attention paid to the analysis of regional organizations compared to the analysis of national specificities or bilateral and multilateral relations not related to regional institutions? Does the structure of the Russian courses correspond to the structure of courses taught at Western universities? The results of the analysis demonstrate that the structure of the academic courses and, partially, of the PhD dissertations on economic and political processes on the post-Soviet space correspond to the priorities in the Russian official documents: for instance, the same terminology is used to describe the whole international political region (the post-Soviet space) and subregions (Central Asia and Caucasus); more priority is given to the analysis of institutionalized cooperation in the framework of international organizations (first of all, the CIS); the role of Russia in the region, its interests and its participation in regional processes are usually understudied, or is absent from the academic courses. The analysis showed that currently there are no so many textbooks on the post-Soviet space, despite the fact that the course "Economic and political processes in the CIS" is included in the basic part of the Professional cycle of the Federal State Educational Standard on the International Relations. However, it should be noted that in the federal educational standards the content of the courses is not specified, that is why universities have an opportunity to create their original content, even if the title of the course is pre-determined.

Obydenkova, Anastassia and Libman, Alexander (eds) Autocratic and Democratic External Influences in Post-Soviet Eurasia (review)

SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 780 Obydenkova, Anastassia and Libman, Alexander (eds). Autocratic and Democratic External Influences in Post-Soviet Eurasia. Soviet Politics. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VT, 2015. xvi + 188 pp. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. £60.00. It is often difficult to adequately review an edited book, especially when it draws on a wide range of case studies and covers two important literatures. I therefore ask the reader to humour me and accept a review of the authoritarian promotion and theoretical sections of the book. There are better analyses of democratic external influences than this book provides and authoritarian promotion remains an understudied topic. Of even more relevance to understanding is the theory-building in the first two chapters provided by the volume’s editors. It is the authoritarian promotion and theoretical aspects which give the study its value. Analysis of authoritarian promotion is currently very much a growth industry in academia. I use the term authoritarian, rather than autocracy, the chosen value throughout the book, as at no point is there a definition of what the authors mean by autocracy. The book requires an explanation of why the authors refer to Russia as an autocracy, which is a state ruled by one man, but the book fails to elucidate this. Another issue throughout is the necessity for a further round of copy editing. However, there is certainly value to the study’s investigation. The editors are correct that there is an imbalance between democratic and authoritarian promotion with a significant analysis of ‘democratic external influence and devoted much less attention to other types of influence’ (p. 7). In their introduction, Libman and Obydenkova set out the analysis that seeks to ascertain if external factors affect states. In terms of authoritarianism the analysis is concerned with ‘why, how and to what extent autocratic countries affect regime transition’ (p. 3). The analysis is interesting for its investigation of supranational and subnational levels and not just the state-level. This basis sets the scene for the comprehensive theoretical chapter by Obydenkova and Libman. In terms of authoritarianism, a key argument is the creation of a framework to ascertain if ‘autocratic regimes have a negative effect on democratization abroad’ (p. 11). While the chapter is novel, investigating actors apart from the state, gaps in the literature are not adequately addressed. The authors claim that Russia is not the only ‘active player in the post-Soviet regionalism’ (p. 21), but throughout the book Russia predominates as the authoritarian promoter par excellence. The chapters provided by Tom Casier and Jakob Tolstrup deliver some valuable, interesting and promising analysis. After reading so far the reader is richly rewarded by an analysis of intended and unintended consequences REVIEWS 781 of EU and Russian promotion in the shared neighbourhood. Through interdependence, diffusion from state to state and attraction are all relevant processes in how the EU and Russia impact their neighbours. The only small issue is that Casier’s analysis focuses on the EU to a far greater extent than Russia and so could have been included in the democratic influence section. Tolstrup’s chapter, too, is well argued and comprehensive with Russia cast as the authoritarian black knight in Ukraine and Moldova, destabilizing its neighbours to keep them in its sphere-of-influence, since as secessionist regions Russia’s neighbours cannot join Western institutions (p. 116). Although it is still too early to provide detailed analysis, the chapter perhaps could have used an investigation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics to ascertain how Russia is continuing to undermine Ukraine. Thelasttwochaptersconcentrateonsupra-nationalauthoritarianinstitutions and public diplomacy in Russia. Ekaterina Furman’s chapter is interesting for its analysis of Kremlin-supported NGOs and the regime’s views on soft power. The author finds that NGOs do not appear to be ‘relatively ineffective in terms of supporting regimes abroad, even if they intended to’ (p. 171). This lack of promotion is the elephant in the room in Libman’s chapter. Having provided a general analysis of regional organizations as potential harbingers of authoritarianism through economic, legitimation and governance support and where the case study of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) ‘shields its members from the democratizing impact...

Blum, Douglas W. The Social Process of Globalization: Return Migration and Cultural Change in Kazakhstan Molchanov, Mikhail A Eurasian Regionalisms and Russian Foreign Policy (review)

SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 584 Blum, Douglas W. The Social Process of Globalization: Return Migration and Cultural Change in Kazakhstan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2016. vii + 214 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £64.99: $99.99. Molchanov, Mikhail A. Eurasian Regionalisms and Russian Foreign Policy. The International Political Economy of New Regionalisms Series. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VT, 2015. xiii + 190. Map. Tables. Bibliography. Index. £60.00. These authors share a geographical focus on Russia’s main neighbours and partners in the post-Soviet region (Kazakhstan and for Molchanov also Ukraine and Belarus) and a thematic focus on the process of transnational integration. That said, it is remarkable that there should be no perceptible links between their analyses. In large part, of course, that is because Douglas Blum (Providence College, RI) is concerned with the diffusion of cultural values while Mikhail Molchanov (St Thomas University, Canada) writes about political economy and geopolitics. But there is more to it than that. What Blum has produced is an account of the experience of young Kazakhs who study in the United States, are influenced to a greater or lesser extent by American cultural values and practices such as self-sufficiency and informality, and then have to ‘negotiate cultural difference’ after returning home. This is a worthy and interesting topic in its own right. What I would question is how much it really tells us about ‘the social process of globalization’ (which is, after all, the title of the book). Nowhere does the author assess the importance of returning students relative to other carriers of cultural change. And by listening exclusively to people who studied in the United States while ignoring those who studied in Russia, Turkey and especially China, he equates globalization with Americanization. (A rapidly increasing proportion of the members of Kazakh and other Central Asian elites obtained their higher education in China.) ‘Globalization’ here is no more than a fashionable label attached to a study of cultural contact between two national societies. Kazakhstan,astheEurasianstateparexcellence(Molchanov,p.85),isapivotal and committed participant in efforts at Eurasian integration. Molchanov has provided a useful and balanced assessment of the various evolving and overlapping regional integration projects in Eurasia (defined as the former Soviet Union plus China). His approach is refreshing in several respects. First, he differs from many commentators in not viewing these projects solely or primarily as vehicles of Russian (or Chinese) hegemonic ambitions, although he acknowledges the centrality of Russian (and Chinese) foreign and energy policies. ‘The regionalist turn in Russia’s foreign policy’, he concludes, ‘suggests flexibility and adaptation, not neoimperialism, hegemonism or reassertion of spheres of influence’ (p. 157). REVIEWS 585 Second, he does not, as do many Eurocentric theorists of regional integration, adopt the model of the European Union as a universal benchmark for comparison. Finally, he is to be commended simply for taking Eurasian integration projects seriously and not assuming that they are impractical and doomed to failure. Molchanov’s analysis of Ukraine’s ‘multivectorism’, although already overtaken by events, remains essentially relevant. He attributes the tragedy in Ukraine not to regionalism as such but to ‘the contamination of [regional] economics by geopolitics’ (p. 157) — a distortion for which the West bears much of the responsibility. Where then does this leave ‘globalization’? Is it just a fancy and misleading name for a specific class of regional integration processes — those centred in Europe, the United States and Japan? Would it not then be more honest to make regionalism our central concept and recognize that we still live in a divided world? Providence, RI Stephen D. Shenfield Wilson, Andrew. Ukraine Crisis: What It Means for the West. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT and London, 2014. ix + 236 pp. Maps. Tables. Notes. Index. £12.99 (paperback). One of the first of many books to come off the presses following the tumultuous events in Ukraine that began in early 2014 was Andrew Wilson’s latest study of a country he has written on extensively and about which he is a respected expert. The book can be divided into three parts. The first three chapters provide context and background to the crisis. The following four lay out a chronology...

Language and Identity Explored

<p>The relationship between language and identity is widely discussed in applied linguistics, sociology, communications and other related scholarly fields. Furthermore, many researchers have focused on the post-Soviet region, which given its unique historical context allows for testing of this relationship. The widespread bilingualism as a result of historical russification and the linguistic transformations that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union make the region a ‘sociolinguistic playground’. Recent events in Ukraine have given grounds to further explore this relationship, now in attempt to link language and identity as potential forces for geopolitical change in the region. This paper presents an overview of existing research, theories, and opposing perspectives related to the relationship between language and identity, and considers complications such as historical russification, religious influence, socioeconomic factors, and education with regards to the Ukrainian and post-Soviet context. I aim to illustrate the significance of language and its effects on socio-political change in the case of Ukraine, by presenting arguments and complications in support of the relationship between language and identity.</p>