Project files are comprised of 1 page pdf and presentation recording in mp4 format. ; Historically an international and regional power, Russia once more dominates the headlines with Russian influence seen from Ukraine to the United Kingdom and even Bolivia. For many, Russia's rise to prominence and the concurrent conservative wave that has swept many countries in Europe and beyond serves as a chilling echo of the Soviet Union. While a lot can be said about how the modern day Russia resembles the former Communist country, one thing stands out significantly; Russia's influence in its surrounding countries. One may recall the recent almost universally condemned annexation of Crimea in 2014 while others might even think back to the controversial takeover of South Ossetia in 2008. Though these events are notable for the violent conflict that followed them, they are far from being isolated incidents. For many years now Russia has been striving to exert control over the former Soviet Republics that crowd the Russian border. Though the international media tends to focus on Russian militaristic aggression, Russia also utilizes its significant soft power in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to further Russian influence over the countries in these regions and their peoples. This project looks at the past history of Russia in relation to its neighbors and the current tactics used to exert political, economic, and cultural influence over these former Republics in order to better understand how Russia's increasing global authority is a reflection of its dominance within its sphere of influence.
Background: Ambient air pollution is a serious problem in many Eastern European countries. Elevated levels of fine airborne particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in the former Soviet republics relative to the rest of Europe contribute to elevated rates of disease, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD).Objective: Information on the underlying social and political causes of air pollution in Eastern Europe is important for pollution control and disease prevention.Methods: To quantify relationships between pollution, and air-pollution-related CVD, and political corruption throughout Europe and particularly in the former Soviet republics, we relied on the State of Global Air report for information on air pollution levels; on the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) for estimates of the burden of air-pollution-related CVD; and on Transparency International (TI) for rankings of governmental corruption.Findings: Air-pollution-related CVD was responsible for an estimated 178,000 (UI: 112,000–251,000) premature deaths and for the loss of 4,010,000 (UI: 2,518,000–-5,611,000) productive years of life (DALYs) in 2019 in the former Soviet republics. A significant positive correlation (R = 0.72, p 1.7e–8) was found across Europe between air-pollution-related CVD mortality rates and national corruption rankings.Conclusions: We conclude that lack of governmental transparency, inadequate air pollution monitoring, and opposition by vested interests have hindered air pollution control and perpetuated high rates of pollution-related morbidity and mortality in the former Soviet republics. Ending corruption and modernizing industrial production will be key to air pollution and related diseases.
The intent of this thesis is to explore why when compared to the former Soviet Republics of Ukraine and Georgia there is a measure of stability in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has made it a priority to slowly build a sense of its own nationalism after decades of Soviet control. In over 20 years of independence it has only known violence for an 18-month period. The Republic of Kazakhstan has gone from the leftovers from a dissolved empire to a stable regional power. Kazakhstan's hegemony in Asia and peaceful ethnic-governmental relations has made it possible for Kazakhstan to have a multi-faceted foreign policy with Russia, China, and the United States and this paper will try to answer the question of how this has been possible. ; 2017-05-01 ; B.A. ; College of Sciences, Political Science ; Bachelors ; This record was generated from author submitted information.
У статті проаналізовано особливості сек'юритизації ісламу в період формування безпекового сектору державної політики у колишніх радянських республіках Центральної Азії. Показано, що на початку 1990-х років у наслідок етно-релігійній специфіці та свого геополітичного положення мусульманські республіки колишнього Радянського Союзу одними із перших на пострадянському просторі зіштовхнулися з ісламістським радикалізмом. У наслідок того, що в 1917-1980 роках у колишньому СРСР була знищена практично вся мусульманська інфраструктура, в першій половині 1990-х років ісламське відродження в мусульманських республіках проходило під значним впливом іноземних радикальних ісламістів. Метою статті є дослідження особливостей сек'юритизації ісламу в період формування (в 1990-х роках) безпекового сектору державної політики у колишніх радянських республіках Центральної Азії для можливого використання в українських реаліях. Результатом стали релігійно-політичні конфлікти в Таджикистані і Узбекистані, в яких брали участь десятки тисяч мусульман, та існувала реальна можливість для їх трансформації в громадянські війни. Проте завдяки досить вдалому використанню державною владою політики сек'юритизації місцевим правлячим елітам вдалося зупинити розвиток подій за найгіршими сценаріями. З початку були здійснені заходи із запобігання подальшій інтенсифікації конфліктів, з часом політична активність ісламістів була каналізована і виведена в позаполітичну сферу. Із цього боку значний інтерес становить відпрацьована протягом багатьох років досить практика поперемінного застосування заходів сек'юритизації/десек'юритизації. Аналіз сучасної релігійно-політичної обстановки в Центральній Азії показує, що основні алгоритми застосованих у 1990-х роках методик можуть ефективно застосовуватися в інших регіонах з мусульманським населенням (у разі загострення релігійно-політичної ситуації, яка здатна призвести до масових акцій непокори, а також перерости в більш небезпечні форми соціально-політичного та етно-релігійного конфлікту). ; The article analyzes the peculiarities of the securitization of Islam during the formation of the security sector of public policy in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. It is shown that in the early 1990s, as a result of ethno-religious specifics and their geopolitical position, the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union were among the first in the post-Soviet space to face Islamist radicalism. Due to the fact that in 1917-1980 in the former USSR was destroyed almost all Muslim infrastructure, in the first half of the 1990s, the Islamic revival in the Muslim republics took place under the significant influence of foreign radical Islamists. The aim of the article is to study the peculiarities of the securitization of Islam during the formation (in the 1990s) of the security sector of public policy in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia for possible use in Ukrainian realities. The result was religious and political conflicts in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in which tens of thousands of Muslims took part, and there was a real opportunity for their transformation into civil wars. However, due to the rather successful use of the securitization policy by the state authorities, the local ruling elites managed to stop the development of events in the worst-case scenarios. From the beginning, measures were taken to prevent further intensification of conflicts, over time, the political activity of Islamists was channeled and brought into the non-political sphere. From this point of view, the practice of alternating securitization / desecuritization measures, which has been practiced for many years, is of considerable interest. Analysis of the current religious and political situation in Central Asia shows that the basic algorithms of the methods used in the 1990s can be effectively applied in other regions with a Muslim population (in case of aggravation of the religious and political situation, which can lead to mass actions of disobedience in more dangerous forms of socio-political and ethno-religious conflict).
In this paper, we identify the main factors of confidence in institutions in the six former Yugoslav republics. Conceptually, we introduce two theoretical approaches: social capital theory and political approach. To test our hypotheses, we rely on European Value Study 2008 data, and we use OLS regression analysis. We conclude that the six countries are quite similar in terms of identified factors of confidence in institutions. Satisfaction with democracy proves to be the most reliable predictor of confidence in institutions in each country. Additionally, we conclude that social capital theory provides a better framework for explaining confidence in institutions, rather than the political approach.
The article consists of two parts. The first is the update of constitutional transformation in the region experiencing the retreat from communism. The organization of this part requires some explanation. The part breaks down into two separate chapters on constitution-drafting in former Soviet Republics and in the new democracies of East-Central Europe. As the former Soviet republics existed within the same statehood until the end of 1991, it seemed appropriate to assemble comments on political developments in the former U.S.S.R in one subchapter examining the end of Gorbachev's era and the process of the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The country-by-country discussion which follows is limited to the examination of the process of constitutional-drafting in several former Soviet Republics. The comments on the constitutional drafts were organized around several more important issues such as the distribution of powers, the inclination to adopt features of presidential or parliamentary systems, constitutional enforcement, and the flexibility of the constitutional provisions. The subchapter on Constitution Drafting in Former Socialist States of East-Central Europe has a slightly different organization. It focuses exclusively on individual countries of post-socialist Europe with the exception of Yugoslavia where the unstable political situation at the time of this writing does not allow any mature evaluation of a future constitutional system. With all similarities linked to common socialist legacies, the former European Peoples Democracies each had their own statehood and more recently have faced different cultural, religious, economic and ethnic problems. It seemed more appropriate to examine their post-communist traumas separately. Thus, each country-by-country section of this subchapter splits into a short report on political developments and a commentary on the process of constitution-drafting. The reader who is looking for an explanation of the references made in Part I to French, German or other constitutional models will find them presented in Part II on a more detailed basis. Being more theoretical than Part I of the article, Part II reviews the major constitutional controversies of the post-communist world against the background of deeply-rooted Western constitutional ideas. The primary aim of the second part of this article is to analyze the fabric of the new constitutions. This part focuses on the issues which proved to be most controversial during the process of constitution drafting in East-Central Europe, such as the description of the state in economic, political and cultural terms; the selection of the form of government; the concepts of the division of powers; the review of the constitutionality of laws; and the idea of a constitution being rigid or flexible. Although a long and exhaustive bill of rights can be found in all new constitutions and constitutional drafts, a more detailed analysis has to be based on the examination of the actual record of these countries in human rights protection. This task was left for a separate study. Finally, based on the information collected from the country-by-country reports, Part II also supplies observations on the process of forming a new constitutional model in the region of former communist dominance.
Despite the considerable interest in the concept of human development, there has been little research on the political determinants of its dimensions. This paper investigates the role played by the type of political systems on the non-income components of human development. In particular it tests the hypothesis that it is not only democratic countries that enhance spending on health and education, but this might be true of autocratic regimes. The hypothesis is tested for the former Soviet Republics. It is found that expenditure on the social provision of health and education increases with both the degree of democracy and autocracy.
Interviews on conscience and dissent in the USSR Interviews conducted by Dr Philip Boobbyer (University of Kent) These interviews, all of them in Russian, were conducted by Dr Boobbyer for a research project on the role of 'conscience' in undermining communism in the late Soviet era. Material from the interviews was used in the book Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia (London: Routledge, 2005), published in Russian as Sovest', dissidentstvo i reformy v Sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2010). The interviews, which were conducted in a semi-structured way, focussed on how dissidents became disenchanted with Soviet socialism, and the extent to which moral and spiritual motivations were present in their ideas and activities. Larisa Bogoraz (1926-2004). Larisa Bogoraz was born in Kharkiv, to a family loyal to the Communist Party. She was an active Komsomol member in her youth. She started to question the Soviet regime in the 1950s. She participated in the demonstration on Red Square against the invasion of Czechoslovakia on 25 August 1968, after which she was sentenced to four years in internal exile in Siberia. She remained active in human rights work throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Place and date of interview: Moscow, April 1996. Transcript provided in Russian. Aleksandr Ginzburg (1936-2002). Aleksandr Ginzburg grew up in Moscow in a non-communist family. In 1960, he co-edited the samizdat publication, Phoenix, after which he was arrested. He was a defendant in the 'trial of the four' in 1967. After Solzhenitsyn was exiled in 1974, he helped to set up the Solzhenitsyn Aid Fund to help political prisoners. He subsequently worked for a time as a secretary to Andrei Sakharov. He was sent into exile in 1979 as part of a prisoner release, and eventually settled in Paris. Place and date of interview: Paris, March 1997. Short summary of contents available (see below). Natalya Gorbanevskaya (1936-2013). Natalya Gorbanevskaya was a poet. She launched the samizdat journal Chronicle of Current Events in April ...
Report considers the debate over military doctrine and strategy in the final days of the Soviet Union and the first six months of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Russian Federation. Since the direction that the CIS and former Soviet republics will take should be cast in terms of their immediate past, a brief review of recent Soviet history is warranted. The report then shifts to an analysis of the organizational development of the armed forces themselves. Having considered these overall questions, the report then outlines their implications on the Navy. The source material for this report is the open- source literature and statements of authorized spokesmen in the former Soviet Union. ; The Office of Naval Intelligence and the Naval Postgraduate School ; http://archive.org/details/militarydoctrine00trit ; The Office of Naval Intelligence and the Naval Postgraduate School ; Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
The post-Soviet republics, outside the EU, have a comparatively poor record on women's parliamentary representation. This has been blamed on the negative legacy of the Soviet system on contemporary gender relations, the complex relationship between the electoral and party systems and on-going political instability. An aspect of this instability is the emergence of de facto states within the internationally recognised boundaries of the former Soviet republics. Research on this region has also underlined the importance of in-depth studies of women representation in the form of single country case studies that have the capacity to tease out these sets of relationships. In this context examining both the 'parent' and the 'de facto' state allows the trajectory of the gender dimension of the political system to be examined comparatively in two political entities that share a recent political, economic and social history. As a contribution to this debate this paper examines the gender dimensions of two parliamentary contests in 2012, one in the de facto state of Abkhazia and the other in its parent state of Georgia, as a means of analysing the factors that explain the level of women's formal political representation in these states.
This Article describes and analyzes the Estonian Securities Market Act; the only securities statute presently in effect in Estonia. Before examining the requirements of that law, the Article provides an overview of the development of a securities market in Estonia, including a description of the securities, exchanges, and professionals that comprise the contemporary market. After providing this context, the Article analyzes the Estonian Securities Market Act. The author concludes that Estonia should not adopt complex securities legislation, but rather should "sample" the laws of other states. This process will allow Estonia to tailor a comprehensive regulatory system to the particular conditions of a nascent securities market.
Constitution adopted in 1936 and amendments through 1944. ; "Amendments . adopted by the 10th session of the Supreme Soviet, February 2, 1944": l ℓ. tipped in on back cover. ; "Based on the English edition of the Constitution adopted in December, 1936, . with the amendments adopted at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th and 8th sessions of the Supreme soviet of the U.S.S.R., taken from the Russian edition of the Constitution published in 1941 by the State political publishing house." ; Mode of access: Internet.
This article scrutinizes the role of discourses on the manipulative use of information for Russia-West relations. Discourses on so-called information warfare have gained prevalence in the public and political debate both in the West and in Russia. Applying a poststructuralist framework, the comparative analysis discusses how these discourses work respectively in each country, how they interact, and what this interaction implies for Russia-West relations. While the contemporary discourses facilitate a confrontational stance of both Russia and the West towards the respective Other, it is argued, first, that these dispositions are malleable. On the long run, Russia-West relations are thus not condemned to remain hostile. Secondly, both sides still speak to some extent the same language. However, if the current cool down prevails, this common discursive ground may fade and give way to more fundamental confrontational stances. Finally, by revealing each other's contingency, discourses in both countries make it appear less natural which interpretation is "true" or "right".
