Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion

Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion PDF Author: Joseph Torigian
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300254237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
How succession in authoritarian regimes was less a competition of visions for the future and more a settling of scores "Joseph Torigian's stellar research and personal interviews have produced a brilliant, meticulous study. It fundamentally undermines what political scientists have presumed to be the way Chinese Communist and Soviet politics operate."--Dorothy J. Solinger, University of California, Irvine "[Torigian's] work is absolutely outstanding."--Stephen Kotkin, ChinaTalk The political successions in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao, respectively, are often explained as triumphs of inner-party democracy, leading to a victory of "reformers" over "conservatives" or "radicals." In traditional thinking, Leninist institutions provide competitors a mechanism for debating policy and making promises, stipulate rules for leadership selection, and prevent the military and secret police from playing a coercive role. Here, Joseph Torigian argues that the post-cult of personality power struggles in history's two greatest Leninist regimes were instead shaped by the politics of personal prestige, historical antagonisms, backhanded political maneuvering, and violence. Mining newly discovered material from Russia and China, Torigian challenges the established historiography and suggests a new way of thinking about the nature of power in authoritarian regimes.

Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion

Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion PDF Author: Joseph Torigian
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300254237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
How succession in authoritarian regimes was less a competition of visions for the future and more a settling of scores "Joseph Torigian's stellar research and personal interviews have produced a brilliant, meticulous study. It fundamentally undermines what political scientists have presumed to be the way Chinese Communist and Soviet politics operate."--Dorothy J. Solinger, University of California, Irvine "[Torigian's] work is absolutely outstanding."--Stephen Kotkin, ChinaTalk The political successions in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao, respectively, are often explained as triumphs of inner-party democracy, leading to a victory of "reformers" over "conservatives" or "radicals." In traditional thinking, Leninist institutions provide competitors a mechanism for debating policy and making promises, stipulate rules for leadership selection, and prevent the military and secret police from playing a coercive role. Here, Joseph Torigian argues that the post-cult of personality power struggles in history's two greatest Leninist regimes were instead shaped by the politics of personal prestige, historical antagonisms, backhanded political maneuvering, and violence. Mining newly discovered material from Russia and China, Torigian challenges the established historiography and suggests a new way of thinking about the nature of power in authoritarian regimes.

Russia's Prestige

Russia's Prestige PDF Author: Kashif Hassan
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781983468285
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Russian architecture has since Medieval times reflected Russia's history directly. Starting when the powerful nation was the tiny state of Kieven Rus' and culminating in modern Russia, this book examines their architectural works and its relation to the nation's state of affairs. It provides a timeline of Russia's main historical periods, their evolution and impact on the vision of Russia. The biographies of the architects included in the book are the author's attempt to enrich the reader's experience by letting them get a feel for the environment the architects build in.

Russia's Prestige

Russia's Prestige PDF Author: Kashif Parvaiz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781432766115
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
Russian architecture has since Medieval times reflected Russia's history directly. Starting when the powerful nation was the tiny state of Kieven Rus' and culminating in modern Russia, this book examines their architectural works and its relation to the nation's state of affairs. It provides a timeline of Russia's main historical periods, their evolution and impact on the vision of Russia. The biographies of the architects included in the book are the author's attempt to enrich the reader's experience by letting them get a feel for the environment the architects build in. Whether enjoying this book as an easy read or while using it in academics, you are bound to take a lot away from it. Rich, compelling and evocative, this book will enhance your imagination and pique your curiosity in the architecture of Russia. "Yet, however beautiful the vision drawn up by the words on a page, there is no substitute for the real adventure of Russia unless you visually experience it yourself. Enjoy the trip as much as I have." - KASHIF PARVAIZ

Bukhara and the Muslims of Russia

Bukhara and the Muslims of Russia PDF Author: Allen J. Frank
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004232885
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In Bukhara and the Muslims of Russia Allen Frank examines the relationship between Muslims in Russia and the city of Bukhara, examining paradoxes emerging the city’s Sufism-based Islamic prestige, and the emergence of Islamic reformism in Russia.

The Price of Prestige

The Price of Prestige PDF Author: Lilach Gilady
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022643334X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
If wars are costly and risky to both sides, why do they occur? Why engage in an arms race when it’s clear that increasing one’s own defense expenditures will only trigger a similar reaction by the other side, leaving both countries just as insecure—and considerably poorer? Just as people buy expensive things precisely because they are more expensive, because they offer the possibility of improved social status or prestige, so too do countries, argues Lilach Gilady. In The Price of Prestige, Gilady shows how many seemingly wasteful government expenditures that appear to contradict the laws of demand actually follow the pattern for what are known as Veblen goods, or positional goods for which demand increases alongside price, even when cheaper substitutes are readily available. From flashy space programs to costly weapons systems a country does not need and cannot maintain to foreign aid programs that offer little benefit to recipients, these conspicuous and strategically timed expenditures are intended to instill awe in the observer through their wasteful might. And underestimating the important social role of excess has serious policy implications. Increasing the cost of war, for example, may not always be an effective tool for preventing it, Gilady argues, nor does decreasing the cost of weapons and other technologies of war necessarily increase the potential for conflict, as shown by the case of a cheap fighter plane whose price tag drove consumers away. In today’s changing world, where there are high levels of uncertainty about the distribution of power, Gilady also offers a valuable way to predict which countries are most likely to be concerned about their position and therefore adopt costly, excessive policies.

Security, Prestige, and Power

Security, Prestige, and Power PDF Author: Spenser A. Warren
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear weapons
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Russia is modernizing its nuclear arsenal. In this dissertation, I seek to answer two questions. Why is Russia modernizing its nuclear arsenal? And what factors determine which specific weapons are prioritized over others? I argue that Russian nuclear modernization is driven by security concerns. Specifically, nuclear modernization hedges against the future development of American ballistic missile defense and conventional counterforce capabilities that could erode Russia's nuclear deterrent, which Russian leaders perceive to be the ultimate guarantor of Russian sovereignty and territorial integrity. While Russia's perception of an American threat can explain why Russia is modernizing its nuclear arsenal, it cannot explain why it prioritizes particular systems over others, as multiple weapons systems may increase the survivability of the Russian nuclear arsenal. I argue that powerful domestic actors-including Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, the Russian military, and the defense industry-support weapons systems that are useful for advancing their political or financial interests. The weapons supported by the most powerful of these actors are the weapons Russia prioritizes. Weapons that Russian leaders believe will enhance Russia's international status and systems that align with Russian strategic culture or otherwise meet the needs of the Russian military-including the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, Russian Navy, and Russian Air Forces-are the weapons most likely to be developed. This resulted in the prioritization of novel nuclear weapons-the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missile, Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle, and Tsirkon hypersonic sea-launched cruise missile-as well as weapons that Russia claims are the best at something-including the Sarmat ICBM or Tu-160M strategic bomber, which Russia claims are the longest-range ICBM and fastest bomber, respectively-as Russian leaders perceive them as useful tools for status competition.

In Search of the True Russia

In Search of the True Russia PDF Author: Lyudmila Parts
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN: 0299317609
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Looks at the contested place of the provinces in twenty-first-century Russia, surveying cultural discourse in journalism, literature, and film to analyze changing notions of nationalism, authenticity, and postimperial identity.

The New Tsar

The New Tsar PDF Author: Steven Lee Myers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471130657
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
The epic tale of Vladimir Putin's path to power, as he emerged from obscurity to become one of the world's most important and dangerous leaders. Former New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief Steven Lee Myers has followed Putin since well before the recent events in the Ukraine, and gives us the fullest and most engaging account available of his rise to power. A gripping, page-turning narrative about Russian power and prestige, the book depicts a cool and calculating leader with enormous ambition and few scruples. As the world struggles to confront a newly assertive Russia, the importance of understanding Putin has never been greater. Vladimir Putin rose out of Soviet deprivation to the pinnacle of influence in the new Russian nation. He came to office in 2000 as a reformer, cutting taxes and expanding property rights, bringing a measure of order and eventually prosperity to millions whose only experience of democracy in the early years following the Soviet collapse was instability, poverty and criminality. On the other, Putin has ushered in a new authoritarianism - unyielding in its brutal repression of dissent and newly assertive politically and militarily in regions like Crimea and the Middle East. The New Tsar is a staggering achievement, a deeply researched and essential biography of one of the most important and destabilising world leaders in recent history, a man whose merciless rule has become inextricably bound to Russia's foreseeable future.

Image is Everything

Image is Everything PDF Author: William Weston Nunn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
ABSTRACT: This thesis examines and analyzes Russian and Austro-Hungarian foreign policy and the rivalry between them between 1904-1914. It asserts the centrality of prestige-garnering as a motivator of their Balkan diplomacy, not only to project an image of strength to their European rivals, but to distract from each's volatile and parlous domestic situation. Both Russia and Austria-Hungary pursued a Balkan policy that emphasized form over substance in order to convince their subjects and rivals that their integrities were intact and unassailable. Instead of more tangible foreign policy goals like territory or economics, abstract notions of imperial dignity, honor, and Great Power status, ideas that became the primary reason for the Great War's outbreak, fueled the rivalry between the two eastern monarchies.

At the Edge of the Nation

At the Edge of the Nation PDF Author: Paul B. Richardson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824888879
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Debates over the remote and beguiling Southern Kuril Islands have revealed a kaleidoscope of divergent and contradictory ideas, convictions, and beliefs on what constitutes the “national” identity of post-Soviet Russia. Forming part of an archipelago stretching from Kamchatka to Hokkaido, administered by Russia but claimed by Japan, these disputed islands offer new perspectives on the ways in which territorial visions of the nation are refracted, inverted, and remade in a myriad of different ways. At the Edge of the Nation provides a unique account of how the Southern Kurils have shaped the parameters of the Russian state and framed debates on the politics of identity in the post-Soviet era. By shifting the debate beyond a proliferation of Eurocentric and Moscow-focused writings, Paul B. Richardson reveals broad alternatives and possibilities for Russian identity in Asia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Russia was suffering the fragmentation of empire and a sudden decline in its international standing, these disputed islands became symbolic of a much larger debate on self-image, nationalism, national space, and Russia’s place in world politics. When viewed through the prism of the Southern Kurils, ideas associated with the “border,” “state,” and “nation” become destabilized, uncovering new insights into state-society relations in modern Russia. At the Edge of the Nation explores how disparate groups of political elites have attempted to use these islands to negotiate enduring tensions within Russia’s identity, and traces how the destiny of these isolated yet evocative islands became irrecoverably bound to the destiny of Russia itself.