Abstract: Law and Power in Russia: Making Sense of Quasi-Legal PracticesAnna Jonsson Cornell (Department of Law, Uppsala University, Sweden) reviews Law and Power in Russia: Making Sense of Quasi-Legal Practices by Håvard Bækken (published in 2019 by Routledge).
Dahlia Lenairte's Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania: Gender, Law and Society (2021) offers an account of the changing role and position of women in the family and in society under the Communist reign in Lithuania. Beginning with the first Soviet occupation before the Second World War, Lenairte details the massive changes from Catholicism to Communism with respect to gender policy, family, divorce, childcare, maternity leave, and finally housing, up until the 1980s. Importantly, she shows that, contrary to common belief about Communist policy, gender equality was in fact never achieved in Soviet Lithuania.
Dahlia Lenairtes bog Familie og stat i Sovjet Litauen: Køn, lov og samfund (2021) er en gennemgang af kvinders ændrede roller og position i samfundet og familien under det kommunistisk styre i Litauen. Med et afsæt fra den første sovjetiske besættelse før 2. Verdenskrig viser Lenairte de enorme ændringer der skete fra katolicisme til kommunisme med hensyn til ligestilling, familie, skilsmisse, børnepasning og barselsorlov, og endelig boligsituationen op til begyndelsen af 1980'erne. I modsætning til den almindelige forståelse af kommunistisk ligestillingspolitik bliver det tydeligt, at kvinder aldrig opnåede at blive ligestillet med mænd.
Organizing the Voice of Women: A Study of the Polish and Swedish Women's Movements' Adaptation to International Structures, by Eva Karlberg, is reviewed by Kirsti Stuvøy, Associate Professor, Faculty of Landscape and Society, International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).
Abstract: Who is responsible for the protection of human rights in Kosovo?Human rights are central in the international community's missions in Kosovo. Moreover, Kosovo's 2008 Constitution lists eight directly applicable human rights instruments, along with detailed instructions on how they are to be interpreted in line with developments at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). And yet, human rights protection is lacking in the region. Potential violations attributable to the local authorities can be adjudicated, but only through the national courts, which raises questions of independence and impartiality. Meanwhile, NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the European Union's Rule of Law Programme (EULEX) enjoy immunity against prosecution by the domestic courts while still wielding some executive and judicial power. EULEX has an internal human rights panel, modelled on the less-than-successful panel established to hold the UN's Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) accountable, while KFOR has no similar judicial body. This article maps which options individuals have for addressing human rights violations in Kosovo and where the system still has its weaknesses. Additionally, it traces how the jurisdictions have changed in the past 15 years and proposes a way forward to fill the lacunae that remains.
Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, reviews Putin, by Hans-Wilhelm Steinfeld (Cappelen Damm, 2020).
Maryam Sugaipova, of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, reviews Det tabte Tjetjenien: Erindringer fra en borgerkrig (What Chechnya Lost: Memories of a Civil War) by Zulay Magazieva,
Helge Blakkisrud (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) reviews the anthology Nationhood and Politization of History in School Textbooks: Identity, the Curriculum and Educational Media, edited by Gorana Ognjenović and Jasna Joselić.
Abstract: The Russian Understanding of War: Blurring the Lines between War and PeaceJulie Wilhelmsen (NUPI, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) reviews The Russian Understanding of War: Blurring the Lines between War and Peace by Oscar Jonsson.
The Politics of Poverty in Contemporary Russia, by Ann-Mari Sätre, is reviewed by Kirsti Stuvøy, Associate Professor, Faculty of Landscape and Society, International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).
Martin Kragh, Deputy Director of the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS) and Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, reviews Ingerid M. Opdahl's book, The Russian State and Russian Energy Companies, 1992–2018 (Routledge, 2020).
Abstract: What has Remained of the USSR – Exploring the Erosion of the Post-Soviet SpaceFlemming Splidsboel Hansen (Danish Institute for International Studies) reviews What has Remained of the USSR – Exploring the Erosion of the Post-Soviet Space, edited by Arkady Moshes and András Racz.
Abstract: Political Culture in the Baltic States. Between National and European IntegrationEglė Kesylytė-Alliks (researcher at Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University) reviews Political Culture in the Baltic States. Between National and European Integration written by Kjetil Duvold, Sten Berglund and Joakim Ekman.
Emil Edenborg (Swedish Institute of International Affairs and Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies at Stockholm University) reviews The Shortest History of Russia: From the Vikings to the Present Day (Den korteste historien om Russland: fra vikingene til våre dager) by Peter Normann Waage (published in 2020 by Wigmostad & Bjorke).
This article begins by examining strategic culture studies, in particular Alan Bloomfield's concept of different sub-cultures in strategic culture. It then focuses on the border between Russia and Finland and how Finnish EU membership was made possible by Finland's decision not to challenge the WWII border treaty with the Soviet Union after the Soviet collapse. Next, it investigates the debates and public opinion relating to Finland's 1994 EU referendum, to see how the dynamics changed three strategic cultural sub-groups: "self-defence", "Westernisers" (including Western international organizations) and "Reassurance and Dialogue with Russia". In conclusion, it is argued that EU membership altered the hierarchy of these strategic culture sub-groups in Finland, as well as their substance. These changes were, however, more evolutionary than revolutionary.