After the Soviet Empire

After the Soviet Empire PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004291458
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Get Book Here

Book Description
The break-up of the Soviet Union is a key event of the twentieth century. The 39th IIS congress in Yerevan 2009 focused on causes and consequences of this event and on shifts in the world order that followed in its wake. This volume is an effort to chart these developments in empirical and conceptual terms. It has a focus on the lands of the former Soviet Union but also explores pathways and contexts in the Second World at large. The Soviet Union was a full scale experiment in creating an alternative modernity. The implosion of this union gave rise to new states in search of national identity. At a time when some observers heralded the end of history, there was a rediscovery of historical legacies and a search for new paths of development across the former Second World. In some parts of this world long-repressed legacies were rediscovered. They were sometimes, as in the case of countries in East Central Europe, built around memories of parliamentary democracy and its replacement by authoritarian rule during the interwar period. Some legacies referred to efforts at establishing statehood in the wake of the First World War, others to national upheavals in the nineteenth century and earlier. In Central Asia and many parts of the Caucasus the cultural heritage of Islam in its different varieties gave rise to new markers of identity but also to violent contestations. In South Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have embarked upon distinctly different, but invariably contingent, paths of development. Analogously core components of the old union have gone through tumultuous, but until the last year and a half largely bloodless, transformations. The crystallization of divergent paths of development in the two largest republics of that union, i.e. Russia and Ukraine, has ushered in divergent national imaginations but also in series of bloody confrontations.

After the Soviet Empire

After the Soviet Empire PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004291458
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Get Book Here

Book Description
The break-up of the Soviet Union is a key event of the twentieth century. The 39th IIS congress in Yerevan 2009 focused on causes and consequences of this event and on shifts in the world order that followed in its wake. This volume is an effort to chart these developments in empirical and conceptual terms. It has a focus on the lands of the former Soviet Union but also explores pathways and contexts in the Second World at large. The Soviet Union was a full scale experiment in creating an alternative modernity. The implosion of this union gave rise to new states in search of national identity. At a time when some observers heralded the end of history, there was a rediscovery of historical legacies and a search for new paths of development across the former Second World. In some parts of this world long-repressed legacies were rediscovered. They were sometimes, as in the case of countries in East Central Europe, built around memories of parliamentary democracy and its replacement by authoritarian rule during the interwar period. Some legacies referred to efforts at establishing statehood in the wake of the First World War, others to national upheavals in the nineteenth century and earlier. In Central Asia and many parts of the Caucasus the cultural heritage of Islam in its different varieties gave rise to new markers of identity but also to violent contestations. In South Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have embarked upon distinctly different, but invariably contingent, paths of development. Analogously core components of the old union have gone through tumultuous, but until the last year and a half largely bloodless, transformations. The crystallization of divergent paths of development in the two largest republics of that union, i.e. Russia and Ukraine, has ushered in divergent national imaginations but also in series of bloody confrontations.

Sovereignty After Empire

Sovereignty After Empire PDF Author: Sally N Cummings
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748675396
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 409

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is a unique, systematic comparison of empires and of their consequences for sovereignty in the Middle East and Central Asia. It brings theory on empire and sovereignty to bear on empirical variation across the two regions.

To Balance or Not to Balance

To Balance or Not to Balance PDF Author: Eric A. Miller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351878867
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book Here

Book Description
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, fifteen newly independent states emerged from the imperial wreckage, some more ready than others to grasp their new found independence. This book tackles the seminal question related to these broader developments: why did some states choose to align with Russia, despite Moscow's overwhelming power advantage and recurrent neo-imperial ambitions? Eric A. Miller develops and tests a theoretical framework that extends traditional realist alignment theories to include domestic level political and economic variables critical to the study of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Specifically, Miller argues that internal political threats to CIS leaders and the extent of a country's economic dependence on Russia were the most influential factors in determining alignments. The volume is designed to meet the need for a thorough theoretical and scholarly assessment of the international and domestic politics of CIS countries.

Pathways of Empire

Pathways of Empire PDF Author: Ravi Ahuja
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788125035275
Category : Infrastructure (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
More and improved roads, railways and canals are they in the public interest under all circumstances? Phrases like public works or infrastructure are rarely subjected to historical reflection. Colonial, nationalist and postcolonial operators have presented their transport policies as if they were informed by the needs of a general public and not shaped according to preferences of particularistic forces. Pathways of Empire moves beyond the technocratic progressivism of earlier writings on the history of transport. For the first time theories of produced social space are concretised in order to open a new perspective on India s social history of circulation and infrastructure. Moreover, the prevalent and narrow focus on railways is overcome. The effects of the steam revolution are thus located in the wider context of existent South Asian regimes of circulation.

The Revived Roman Empire and the European Union: Pathway to the Seventieth Week of Daniel’s Prophecy

The Revived Roman Empire and the European Union: Pathway to the Seventieth Week of Daniel’s Prophecy PDF Author: Gerald Miller
Publisher: PublishAmerica
ISBN: 1456082477
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Revived Roman Empire and the European Union is a brief look at ancient history, present day events of the existing European Union vs, America, and prophecy of things to come. It leads the reader from Daniel's prophecy of the four great empires that appeared before the time of Christ, to the events of the modern day world we now live in, the expansion of the European Union, and beyond. This book shows the accuracy of Daniel's prophecies of time from the first to the sixty-nine week period spoken of before the Son of Man would appear on earth. It also speaks of the Seventieth Week of Daniel's prophecy concerning the rapture of the church and the following Tribulation Period, its events, and what lay beyond the tribulation period. It is a must read for every Christian and a highly interesting read for every non-Christian.

Eurasia's New Frontiers

Eurasia's New Frontiers PDF Author: Thomas W. Simons
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801461839
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Get Book Here

Book Description
"As a global power, the United States will always be interested in Eurasia and engaged with its peoples and nations. Eurasia is too large and important a part of the world to be ignored. It casts a shadow of the old Soviet threat forward in time, and its axis-the Russian Federation-is nuclear-armed. So are its neighbors, China to the east, India and Pakistan to the south; and there are others in the queue. Eurasia's new nations are players on today's most urgent global issues: terrorism; counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction; economic stability and growth (including its energy centerpiece); stable political development (including democratization, its long-term key).... So the context for why Eurasia matters is very large."—from Eurasia's New Frontiers In Eurasia's New Frontiers, Thomas W. Simons, Jr., a distinguished veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service with extensive experience in the Communist and post-Communist worlds, assays the political, economic, and social developments in the fifteen successor states to the Soviet Union that comprise Eurasia—from Estonia to Azerbaijan and from Tajikistan to Ukraine, centered on Russia. He makes a compelling case that the United States can play a large role in shaping the future of this vast and strategic region, and at less cost than during Soviet times. This can only be accomplished, however, if U.S. policy toward Eurasia shifts from alternating hand-wringing and indifference to steady and flexible engagement that focuses on its fledgling individual nation-states. Throughout Eurasia, Simons shows, civil society is anemic, market reforms have been discredited, and political development has been stunted. Authoritarian and semiauthoritarian regimes are firmly in place from Belarus to Central Asia; in Ukraine, Moldova, and even Russia, some democratic forms have taken hold; but everywhere, politics features struggle among elites over access to economic resources, albeit often defined in terms of "sovereignty." Almost everywhere, states are consolidating: as resurgent Russia presses on its neighbors, they can now press back, alone or with help from the outside world. Simons believes that the post-Soviet space needs stable development of state institutions within which new civil societies can take root and grow. Potentially strong state institutions are, in his view, Soviet Communism's "secret gift" to Eurasia, and they may well enable the region to become in time an arc of promise, an anchor of relative stability in a troubled part of the world. For that to happen, Simons argues, the nationalism that gives content to these new state structures must be the right kind: civic and inclusionary rather than ethno-religious and exclusionary. Because Russia is so diverse and its nationalism so state-oriented, Simons also sees it as more likely to develop that kind of civic nationalism than some of its new neighbors. The United States has a limited but real role to play in helping or hindering its emergence everywhere in Eurasia. If it wishes to help, though, the U.S. must realize that in this part of the world the path to democracy leads through state development. The U.S. will continue to advocate for its core values, but it can best act as a City on the Hill for Eurasia if its policy centers on the emerging new states of today, for they must be the incubators of tomorrow's civil societies.

Divergent Paths in Post-Communist Transformation

Divergent Paths in Post-Communist Transformation PDF Author: O. Havrylyshyn
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230502857
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
The most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the successes and failures of 27 countries post-communism transformation. Looking at life after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the book examines and contrasts why some countries have virtually completed their transformation to a liberal polity and economy, while others lag behind.

The Ukraine Conflict

The Ukraine Conflict PDF Author: Derek Averre
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351692879
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Get Book Here

Book Description
It is not hyperbole to suggest that the foundations of post-cold war security in Europe have been badly damaged by the conflict in Ukraine since 2014. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine appear to have created a ‘simmering’ conflict, which may take years to resolve and have profound consequences for the European security environment. This volume explores the various political, economic and social aspects of these profound changes and their wider significance for Europe, bringing together contributions by scholars from across the continent and in various disciplinary fields to offer an authoritative, in-depth examination of the complex causes of the Ukraine crisis and the consequences for Ukrainian statehood, Ukraine’s relations with Russia, Russia’s own domestic governance and Russia’s relations with Europe. This book was originally published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

The European Union in International Politics

The European Union in International Politics PDF Author: Roy H. Ginsberg
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742500235
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
As the world looks to Europe to take on more responsibility in international politics and security in the devastating aftermath of Bosnia and Kosovo, this pathbreaking book provides the first systematic evaluation of the political impact of the European Union (EU) on a global scale. Little is known of the EU's international political influence, yet if the EU is to develop a viable Common Foreign and Security Policy, other actors will have to perceive the Union as an important player. Roy Ginsberg fills this vital gap by first linking the contexts and sources of EU foreign policy actions with the processes and outputs of decisionmaking and then examining how outsiders view the EU. Combining a masterly synthesis of the literature with invaluable primary interviews and case studies that document the reach of and limits to the EU's political influence, Ginsberg takes the study of EU foreign policy to a new level of analysis. By defining, describing, and explaining the different levels and degrees of external political impact, the book serves as a model for the advancement of conceptual knowledge, rigorous political science research, and state-of-the-art survey techniques and methodology. Scholars, students, and practitioners alike will find this rounded and nuanced work indispensable for understanding EU involvement in international politics seen from the perspective of non-EU players, particularly after the war in Kosovo; the enactment of the Treaty of Amsterdam; the Irish "no" vote for the Treaty of Nice; and the efforts forged by the Europeans to operationalize the new political, security, and military committees associated with the European Security and Defense Policy.

The Politics of Transition in Central Asia and the Caucasus

The Politics of Transition in Central Asia and the Caucasus PDF Author: Amanda E Wooden
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134207441
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
Most books on the Caucasus and Central Asia are country-by-country studies. This book, on the other hand, fills a gap in Central Eurasian studies as one of the few comparative case study books on Central Eurasia, covering both the Caucasus and Central Asia; it considers key themes right across the two regions highlighting both political change and continuity. Comparative case study chapters, written by regional experts from a variety of methodological backgrounds, provide historical context, and evaluate Soviet political legacies and emerging policy outcomes. Key topics include: the varied types and sources of authoritarianism; political opposition and protest politics; predetermined outcomes of post-Soviet economic choices; social and stability impacts of natural resource wealth; variations in educational reform; international norm influence on gender policy and the power of human rights activists. Overall, the book provides a thorough, up-to-date overview of what is increasingly becoming a significant area of concern.